572 



THE CONVOLVULUS FAMILY. 



1. Greater Dodder. Cuscuta europsea, Linn. (Fig. 682.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 378.) 



The whole plant is of a pale greenish- 

 yellow, tending more or less to redden 

 in many sitnations. Flowers in sessile, 

 globular clusters, 4 or 5 lines in diame- 

 ter; each flower a little more than 1 

 line in diameter, sessile or borne on an 

 exceedingly short pedicel. Sepals broad 

 and rounded. Tube of the corolla at 

 first broadly cylindrical, longer than the 

 calyx, with broad and short lobes, and 

 very minute, scarcely perceptible scales 

 inside. Styles and stamens usually en- 

 closed in the tube. As the capsule en- 

 larges, the tube of the corolla becomes nearly globular. 



Parasitic on a great variety of plants, more especially on herbaceous 

 stems, in Europe and temperate parts of Asia. Not very abundant in 

 England, and not recorded with certainty either from Ireland or Scot- 

 land. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 682. 



2. Flax Dodder. Cuscuta Epilinum, Weihe. (Fig. 683.) 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2850.) 



Differs slightly from the greater D. in 

 its flowers rather larger and more suc- 

 culent but fewer in number, the calyx 

 rather longer, the corolla-tube globular 

 even when young, and the lobes still 

 shorter in proportion. 



Said to grow exclusively on Flax, in 

 Europe and Russian Asia, and intro- 

 duced into Britain with the cultivation 

 of that plant. Fl. summer. 



Fig. G83. 





