MONOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CUSCUTINE^E. 
Var. a. laxiflora : flowers in loose cymes. 0. glomerata : flowers conglomerate, y. tetramera : flowers 
inumbelliform cymes, 3-4-parted. 
This species has apparently not only the widest range of all the American Cuscutse, hut is less restricted to the 
^ame genus or family of plants. Indeed I have scarcely met with it twice upon the same species. Var. a. is the 
southern and western form: Western New York on Decodon, Dr. A. Gray; Missouri on Cephalanthus and Amphi- 
carpsea, and Georgia, on- % J. Carey; Alabama, on Salix and Aster, S. B. Buckley. Var. 0. is the northern form: 
my specimens are from Vermont, on Leersia, and New Hampshire, on Solidago, both from Mr. J. Carey. Var. y. 
Connecticut, on Urtica, J. Carey. 
The Cuscuta vulgivaga , is perhaps in part the Cuscuta Americana of Linnaeus, and of many later botanists. But 
their diagnoses are too incomplete to decide the point,-and different species undoubtedly have been confounded under 
this name. Even Linnaeus himself (Spec. Plant, ed. 1, p. 124), referring to Gronov. Virg. and to Sloane, Hist. I., p. 
2dl, t. 128, f. 4, confounds two distinct species. Which of them is to be the G. Americana ? Linnaeus has only the 
following words: 44 Cuscuta floribus pedunculatis.” Michaux, (I., 175) : 44 Cuscuta, iloribus pedicellatis, pentan- 
dris. 5> Pursh (I., 116) : 44 C. fl. pedunculatis umbellatis 5-fidis.” Other botanists add, 44 stigmatibus eapitatis.” [339] 
Nuttall, gen. (II., addit.) on the other hand has it: 44 flowers mostly pentandrous and sessile;” and Sprengel 
(Syst. Veg. I., 864) brings his C. Americana under the section with glomerate subsessile flowers. While these authors 
refer to one or more North American species, others apply the name with at least equal justice to a West Indian plant. 
Linnaeus himself cites Sloane, Hist. I., t. 128, f. 4. After him Jacquin (Stirp. Am. p. 24), Swartz (Obs. p. 54), and 
others describe a West Indian species. The name may therefore properly be reserved for Sloane’s plant, or may be 
discarded altogether. The only reason I have in supposing that most North American authors give it to Cuscuta 
vulgivaga, is that this is the most common and the widest spread species in the United States, and has generally the 
flowers longer-peduncled than any other. 
This Cuscuta is intermediate between C. Cephalanthi and C. Saururi. In all three the lobes of the calyx and 
corolla are obtuse, and the former shorter than the tube of the corolla. But our plant is distinguished from both by 
the carina of the lobes of the calyx, which is formed by larger uneven prominent cells, and by the large pellucid dots 
in the substanee of the corolla, which may be mistaken for glands, but are nothing but cells larger than the rest 
of the tissue. The carinae of the calyx are most prominent on the three outer lobes, and sometimes hardly perceptible 
on the two inner; but even then the large irregular cells are easily distinguished by the lens. The lobes of the corolla 
are shorter than the tube, as in C. Cephalanthi: the scales are large and incurved, and the corolla remains at the 
base of the capsule, as in C. Saururi. The tube is campanulate, but deeper than in C. Saururi or C. Polygonorum. 
The flowers and fruit are larger than in Cephalanthi, and (especially in var. a.) nearly of the same size as in C. 
Saururi. The styles are in some specimens a little longer, in others a little shorter than the ovary, which appears to 
be crowned by a stylopodium: this however it is hardly possible to ascertain satisfactorily in the dried specimens. 
4. Cuscuta Saururi, n. sp.: stem low, branching; flowers 5-parted, somewhat pedunculate, at length in 
spikes; tube of the corolla campanulate, equal to the obtusish campanulate or spreading lobes, and longer than 
the obtuse segments of the calyx; stamens as long as the limb; the scales pinnatifid-laciniate, convergent, covering [340] 
the ovary; styles as long as the ovate-globose ovary with the stylopodium; remains of the corolla persistent at 
the base of the subglobose capsule. 
Margin of lakes and swamps, in the “American Bottom” opposite St Louis, on Saururus, where it was dis¬ 
covered in September, 1841, by my friend, Ch. Geyer, the indefatigable botanist who has signalized himself in the North¬ 
western Expedition of Mr. J. N. Nicollet in 1839. Alabama, Dr. A. Front. Texas, on Bcehmeria, Polygonum, &c., 
F. Lindheimer. A variety with rather larger calyx-lobes, in other respects perfectly agreeing with the above descrip¬ 
tion, was obtained by Dr. A. Gray, in Western New York (also on Saururus?). 
This species bears a great resemblance to C. Polygonorum; but differs from it in the much stouter stems, the 
greater size of the flowers, the larger convergent scales, and the stylopodium on the ovary. The stems are one-third 
of a line or more in diameter, and are stouter than in any other of our species. It is the latest species in blossom, the 
flowers not appearing before the beginning or middle of September; while C. Polygonorum commences in August, 
and C. Cephalanthi and C. Coryli, which are the earliest flowering species of our neighborhood, are in bloom by the 
end of July. 
\j 5. Cuscuta pentagona, n. sp.: stem branched; flowers pedunculate, subumbellate, small, 5-parted; tube of 
the corolla open-campanulate, shorter than the long acuminate lobes, and the smooth, roundish, obtuse lobes of the 
5-angled calyx ; stamens shorter than the limb; the scales ovate, fimbriate, convergent; styles filiform ; about equal 
to the globose ovary; capsule ——. 
On Euphorbia or Tragia, Norfolk, Virginia, Mr. Rugel; communicated by Dr. Gray. Also near Houston, Texas, 
on different low herbs in a wet prairie; flowering in April, F. Lindheimer. Beardstown, Illinois, in sandy soil, 
Ch. Geyer. 
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