Cressa.] 
LXXXV. CONVOLVULACEiE. 
1075 
the calyx, hairy outside. Anthers large, oblong. Ovary villous. Capsule ovoid, 
exceeding the calyx, rarely ripening more than one smooth seed. — C. australis , 
R. Br. Prod. 490. 
Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria and Broadsound, R. Brown; sandy flats, Port 
Denison, IF. Hill : common in the colony. 
The species is abundantly spread over sandy maritime or 3aline districts in the warmer 
regions of the Old and New World, extending to the Mediterranean region of Europe. The 
flowers in some of the tropical Australian specimens are larger than usual, but not otherwise 
different. — Beiith. 
13. CUSCUTA, Linn, 
(Derived from its Arabic name.) 
Sepals distinct or united in a 5-lobed rarely 4-lobed calyx. Corolla cam- 
panulate, ovoid or globular, with a short 5-lobed or rarely 4-lobed limb. 
Anthers usually nearly sessile, with a scale below each in the tube of the corolla. 
Ovary completely or partially 2-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Styles 2, 
distinct or more or less united ; stigmas capitate or acute. Fruit a dry or 
scarcely succulent capsule, opening transversely or bursting irregularly. 
Embryo spiral or curved round a fleshy albumen ; cotyledens inconspicuous. 
— Herbs, with leafless thread-like parasitical stems, bearing usually sessile 
clusters of small sessile or pedicellate flowers, white or pink. 
A considerable genus, dispersed over all warm and temperate regions of the globe. 
Flowers sessile or very shortly pedicellate in globular clusters 
Calyx-lobes prominently keeled. Stigmas capitate 1. C. cliinemis. 
Calyx-lobes not keeled Stigmas capitate 2. C. australis. 
Segments of corolla blunt. Stigmas acute 3. C. europcca. 
Segments of corolla acute. Stigmas acute 4. C. epithymum. 
1. C. Chinensis (of China), Law.; Engelm. in Trans. Acad. St. Louis, i. 
479; Benth. FI. Anstr. iv. 441. Flowers rather small, nearly globular, very 
shortly pedicellate in globular clusters, sometimes reduced to 2 or 3 flowers and 
not usually so dense as in C. australis. Calyx shorter than the corolla, divided 
to the middle or rather lower into obtuse lobes, the keels and sutures of the 
sepals forming 10 rather prominent ribs to the tube. Corolla 1 to 1^ line 
long, the lobes rather obtuse. Scales of the tube deeply fringed or lobed. 
Styles distinct, unequal, rather slender, with capitate stigmas. Capsule bursting 
irregularly.— C. carinata, R. Br. Prod. 491. 
Hab.: Bay of Inlets and Cape Grafton, Banks and Solander (Herb. Mus. Brit.) ; on Indigofera, 
Etheridge Biver, IF. E. Arndt. 
Apparently common in tropical Asia, extending from Madagascar and Ceylon to China. 
2. C. australis (Australian), R. Br. Prod. 491 ; Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 441. 
Flowers nearly globular, sessile or very shortly pedicellate, in globular clusters, 
sometimes reduced to 2 or 3 flowers, each about \b line diameter, and all the 
parts minutely glandular-dotted. Calyx shorter than the corolla, divided to 
below the middle into obtuse lobes, without prominent ribs. Corolla-lobes very 
obtuse, at length recurved. Scales of the tube bifid or fringed, sometimes very 
small but often nearly as long as the tube. Ovary much depressed ; styles 
distinct, rather thick, unequal, with capitate stigmas. Capsule depressed, with 
a broad rhomboidal area between the styles. — C. ohtusiflora, H.B. and K.; 
Engelm. in Trans. Acad. St. Louis, 491. 
Hab.: Broadsound. B. Brown; Rockhampton, P. O’Shanesy ; common on Polygonum in 
southern localities. 
The species is widely dispersed over the warmer parts of America and Asia, extending north- 
wards to the southern United States and to S. Europe. 
