266 CUSCUTE.E. 



obtuse, 1 — 2 lines long, rather exceeding the yellow corolla, and equalling 

 the subglobose pubescent carpels. — Open hills about the Presidio, San 

 Francisco, and above Mountain Lake. 



3. CRESSA, Linn. Stems erect, branching from the base, leafy 

 throughout, and bearing small white flowers in the upper axils. Oalyx 

 of 5 subequal sepals. Corolla with oblong tube and 5 oblong-ovate 

 spreading lobes. Filaments filiform, exserted. Ovary 2-celled; capsule 

 by abortion 1-seeded. 



1. C. erotica, L. Slender stems and small oblong-ovate leaves 

 canescently silky: fl. sessile or short-pedicelled in the upper axils, some- 

 times spicate-crowded as if in a leafy-bracted spike: white corolla 2 — 3 

 lines long, silky pubescent on the outside. — In hard subsaline clayey 

 soils, usually near maritime salt marshes. 



Obdeb lxxiv. CU3CUTE/E. 



A single genus of parasitic herbs with twining filiform golden yellow 

 leafless stems; floral organs much like those of some Convolvulacese. 



1. CUSCUTA, Tragus. Flowers small, white, usually densely clus- 

 tered. Calyx 5-cleft or -parted. Corolla campanulate, or subcylindric 

 with spreading limb. Stamens usually with a fringed appendage below 

 their insertion in the throat. Ovary globose, 2-celled, 4-ovuled. Styles 

 in all our species 2. Capsule 1 — 4rseeded, dry and circumscissile or 

 baccate. Embryo filiform, spirally coiled in fleshy albumen, destitute 

 of cotyledons. 



1. C. Californica, Choisy. Flowers 1 — 2 lines long, pedieelled in 

 loose cymes: calyx-lobes acute: corolla-lobes lanceolate-subulate, as 

 long as or longer than the shallow campanulate tube: filaments nearly 

 equalling the linear-oblong anthers; appendages none, or represented by 

 rudimentary inverted arches near the base of the tube: styles slender: 

 capsule depressed-globose. — Attributed to the western part of California 

 generally, and running into some marked varieties not known to us. 



2. C. salina, Engelm. Stems very slender, densely clothing stems 

 of Salicomia and other salt-marsh herbs: fl. 1% — 2% lines long, pedi- 

 eelled in loose cymes: calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute, as long as the 

 denticulate corolla-lobes: corolla-tube shallow-campanulate: filaments 

 about as long as the oval anthers; fringed scales shorter than the corolla- 

 tube, sometimes incomplete: styles as long as, or shorter than the acute 

 ovary: capsule conical, surrounded by the withered corolla, usually 

 1-seeded. — Plentiful in salt marshes all around the Bay. 



3. C. subinclusa, Dur. & Hilg. Stems coarse and few, ascending 

 small shrubs to the height of a yard or more: fl. sessile or short-pedi- 

 celled, at length in clusters % — 1 i n - thick, the individual fl. 2% — 3% 



