BINDWEED FAMILY 



347 



climbing the stalks of corn or any other support. — Fl. June — 

 September. Perennial. 



2. Cuscuta (Dodder). — -Slender, branched, twining, leafless 

 parasites, with thread-like stems, generally reddish, and small 

 flowers in compact globular heads ; calyx 4 — 5 cleft ; corolla bell- 

 shaped, 4 — 5-cleft, generally with 

 scales below the epipetalous sta- 

 mens; ovary 2 -chambered, 4-seeded; 

 capsule bursting transversely ; seeds 

 almost without cotyledons. (Name 

 of doubtful etymology.) 



1 . C. europcca (Greater Dodder), 

 with a calyx of blunt sepals, much 

 shorter than the yellowish corolla, 

 and the scales in the corolla-tube 

 short, notched, and pressed to the 

 sides of the tube, grows on Nettles, 

 Thistles, Vetches, and other herb- 

 aceous plants - — Fl. July — Septem- 

 ber. Annual. 



2. C. Epithymum (Lesser Dod- 

 der), with a reddish calyx of acute 

 sepals, shorter than the white 

 corolla, the scales as long as the 

 corolla-tube, fringed and converg- 

 ing, and the stamens exserted, 

 grows on Furzes, Heaths, Thymes, 

 and other shrubby plants, and is the 

 commonest species. Soon after 

 flowering the stems turn dark 

 brown, and in winter disappear.-- 

 Fl. July — October. Annual. 



3.* C. Epilinum (Flax Dodder), 

 with green stems, whitish flowers in 

 small clusters, acute sepals as long 

 as the corolla, and adpressed 

 fringed scales, is sometimes very 

 destructive to Flax. — Fl. July, August. Annual. 



4.* C. Trifolii (Clover Dodder), with reddish-yellow stems; 

 white flowers ; lanceolate, red-tipped sepals as long as the corolla, 

 and converging scales half as long as the corolla-tube ; grows 

 chiefly on Clover. — Fl. July — September. Annual. 



i'i'thvmum {Lesser Dodder 



