THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



139 



frequently appears in the most unexpected places. I recollect 

 being frantically called over the telephone by one of my friends 

 who, knowing- my hobby, insisted on my coming over at once 

 to see her chrysanthemums which were full of thin yellow 

 worms ! I chuckled to myself as I hurried over for I thought 

 I recognized the ubiquitous dodder in her yellow worms. It 

 was a rather shame-faced gardener to whom I explained the 

 identity of the worms, but it is always a surprise to find the 

 number of people who are ignorant of even our common 

 plants. The dodders are not particular as to their host; they 

 grow commonly on our clovers and alfalfa but I have fre- 

 quently seen huge masses of it coiling about a dry and gnarled 

 sagebrush to absorb from it its scanty supply of nourishment 

 and water. 



THE GRAY OR SPANISH MOSS 



By Mrs. Georgia Torrey Drennan. 



I 'HE gray moss {TiUandsia itsnoides) grows from the Dis- 

 mal Sw^amp south to the Gulf of Mexico, in all heavily 

 timbered low lands. In some respects it is a weird feature of 

 vegetation and at all times, it is quite picturesque. Composed 

 of gray, scurfy, thread-like branching stems with linear awl- 

 shaped leaves, it depends in long, full, swaying draperies from 

 the spreading limbs of trees, feeding upon the moist air of the 

 swamps. The small sessile green flowers are produced in 

 summer and the ripened ovary forms a narrow, three-valved 

 pod filled with club shaped, hairy-stalked seeds. 



Though not a parasite, it yet attaches itself to the spreading 

 limbs of trees, and makes profuse growth. Its principal 

 affinity is the live oak. Magnolia grandiflcra, cypress, cedar, 

 and pine in close juxtaposition to the live oak, will be sparsely 

 covered while the oak will be heavily draped. As it hangs 

 from^ the gigantic trees, the gray moss is filmy and apparently 



