CONVOLVULACK.l.. 1)1 
has occurred on vetches in cultivated fields at Thirsk and near 
Twyeross : it is probably a distinct sub-species, but not native. 
Great Dodder. 
French, Cuscute a Grandes Fleurs. German, Quendel Seide. 
This mischievous plant entangles and destroys with its living meshes the branenps 
of hop, nettle, vetches, and other plants, around which it grows. The Dodders are 
all annuals, and commence life usually in the earth, where the seeds vegetate, and 
whence they climb on to objects of their attack, attaching themselves by minute 
tubercles to the surface of the stalks. As soon as they find they have secureil a firm 
hold, they relinquish connection with the soil, and steal their sustenance wholly from 
their victim. Their stems are as fine as thread, and twine round the plants they 
attack in a tan-lid mass, so as often to conceal them. Cowley takes advantage of 
the nature of the Dodder to describe it as an illustration of female dependence. 
Describing the plant on which it grows, he says : On hiiu — 
" She must depend alone, 
And nothing in herself can call her own. 
Fed with his juice, she on his stalk is born, 
A i,il thinks his leaves her head full well adorn. 
Whate'er he be, she loves to take his name, 
And must, with him, be every way the same." 
SPECIES III.— C U S C U T A EPITHYMUIl Mutt. 
Plate DCCCCXXVIII. 
J: Wi. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVIII. Tab. MCCCXLIII. Fig. 3. 
Jlil'ot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 150. 
C. Europa3a p, Epithymum, Linn. Sp. Plant, p. 180. 
C. Europsea, Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 53. 
0. minor, D. C. Cholsy in D. C. Prod. Vol. IX. p. 453. 
Stems threadlike, branched, usually red. Flowers sub-sessile 
or shortly-stalked, in compact sessile globular heads. Calyx bell- 
shaped, red ; segments slightly lleshy, semi-transparent, ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, slightly spreading at the tips. Corolla slightly 
exceeding the calyx ; tube cylindrical at the time of flowering ; 
limb spreading, as long as the tube; lobes triangular, acute, 
spreading ; scales very large, as long as tube of corolla, incurved, 
nearly concealing the ovary. Stamens exserted. Styles 2, fili- 
form, longer than the ovary, erect ; stigmas linear. Seeds slightly 
roughened. 
Parasitical upon ling, furze, thyme, and other small shrubby 
plants. Not uncommon in England ; rare in Scotland, where it 
is said to grow at Mollance, Galloway. 
England, Scotland (?). Annual. Late Summer and Autumn 
