CUSCUTA. 



CONVOLVULACE.E. 



99 



1. Cuscuta Gronovii, Choisy. Common Dodder. 

 Stem branched ; flowers pedunculate or more lax, generally 5-parted ; tube of the corolla 



deeply campanulate, longer than the pellucid-punctate open (finally reflexed) lobes of the 

 roundish carinate obtuse and slightly crenulate calyx-segments ; scales convergent, fimbriate, 

 united at the base ; styles about as long as the ovary ; the remains of the corolla persistent at 

 the base of the oval capsule. — Choisy, I. c. t. 4./. 3. C. vulgivaga, Englem. I. c. p. 338. 

 C. Americana, Linn. sp. 1. p. 124 (in part), and of most other authors? 



Stems filiform, orange-colored, closely twining about the stems of other plants, and partly 

 hanging loosely. Flowers sometimes rather loose, in small cymules or nearly solitary, but 

 more commonly much crowded. Calyx and corolla (particularly the latter) marked with 

 pretty conspicuous little roundish glands, which are filled with a terebinthine matter. Styles 

 erect, mostly unequal, elongated after flowering : stigmas capitate. Capsule ovoid ; one or 

 two of the seeds often abortive. 



Low grounds ; very common. July - September. 



2. Cuscuta umbrosa, Bet/rich. Smooth-floivered Dodder. 



Stem low, branching ; flowers 5-parted, somewhat pedunculate, at length in spikes ; tube 

 of the corolla campanulate, equal to the somewhat obtuse campanulate or spreading lobes, and 

 longer than the obtuse calycine segments ; stamens as long as the limb ; scales pinnatifid- 

 laciuiate, convergent, covering the ovary ; styles as long as the ovoid-globose ovary with the 

 stylopodium ; the remains of the corolla persistent at the base of the subglobose capsule. — 

 Engelm. I. c. p. 339 (under C. Saururi) ; Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 2. p. 78. 



Distinguished from the preceding by the more open campanulate corolla, which is destitute 

 of pellucid glands, and the form of its lobes as well as those of the calyx, which are more or 

 less orbicular in C. vulgivaga (Englem.). 



Western part of the State (Dr. Gray ; Dr. Englemann). 



3. Cuscuta Epilinum, Weihe ? Flax-vine. Flax Dodder. 



Heads of about five sessile flowers ; pentamerous styles included ; stigmas acute ; corolla 

 with a globose tube, scarcely longer than the spreading campanulate calyx ; lobes of the calyx 

 broad, acuminate. — Reich, ic. hot. t. 500, ex Hook. Brit. fl. p. 109 ? C. Europaea, Torr. 

 fl. 1. p. 290 ; Beck, hot p. 250 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 167, not of Linn. 



Stem orange-colored, slender, filiform. Flowers in small dense heads, closely sessile. 

 Calyx rather succulent ; the lobes with a short but distinct acumination. Corolla nearly 

 globose, pale yellow or rose-colored ; the lobes semiovate, obtuse or rather acute, somewhat 

 spongy at the extremity. Stamens nearly as long as the lobes of the corolla. Scales very 

 thin and transparent, oblong, crenate-laciniate. Styles diverging. Capsule globose-turbinate. 

 Seeds 2-4, margined when young, nearly globose, reddish brown, rough. 



Cultivated fields, parasitic on flax and other plants. Near Schenectady, &c. (Dr. Beck). 

 I have not had an opportunity of comparing this plant with authentic specimens of C. Epilinum, 

 but it agrees very well with the description of that species as given in the books. 



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