mm 
—' 
OP THE GENUS CUSCUTA. gj 
§ 1. Platycarpese. 
Flowers pedicelled ; sepals united; ovary and capsule globose-depressed, with walls of uniform thickness (in 
some forms of the last species conic). 
* Flowers arranged in single or compound subglobose cymes ; styles usually short and thick ; withered corolla 
remaining at base of capsule. ... 
39. ’ C. obtusiflora, HBK. — Humboldt’s plant is the type of a series of forms spread over a great part 
of the globe. The inconspicuous little species of the Peruvian Andes was not recognized nor sought for in the 
specimens found in widely distant parts of the globe ; these, therefore, received distinct specific appellations, and 
different ones in different countries. They all are characterized by the bright orange-colored stems (which has 
suggested several specific names); the loosely globose inflorescence; the obtuse or rounded lobes of the calyx and 
the corolla, the lacinise usually equal in length to the tube, and soon reflexed ; the thick and at last subulate styles on 
the large and depressed ovary, which soon after flowering swells considerably, and, leaving the corolla at base, grows 
into a large, depressed, almost naked 4-seeded capsule, with a larg6 intrastylar aperture of rhombic shape. Seeds 
0.6 or 0.7 or even 0.8 line long, oval, oblique, with a long and narrowly linear perpendicular or transverse hilum 
running almost across the whole umbilicus. All parts of the flower are often, and the capsule commonly, glandulous- 
dotted. The principal, if not the only, difference I can discover between the different forms here united lies in the 
shape and size of the scales. 
Synopsis of the forms of C. obtusiflora. 
a. Scales ovate or spatulate. 
* Scales small, shorter than the tube of the corolla: Yar. vera, from South America. 
** Scales large, equalling or exceeding the tube of the corolla ; all parts of the flower dotted with glands : Var. glandu- 
losa, from the West Indies and the southern parts of the United States. 
*** Lobes of calyx and corolla broadly oval, or almost orbicular; scales large : Yar. latiloba ., from India. " [492 (42)] 
b. Scales bifid and often very small. 
* Flowers 5-parted, usually glandulous ; scales very small, sometimes almost obliterated : Var. australis , from New 
Holland and China. 
** Flowers often 4-parted, scarcely glandulous; scales as in the last: Var. bremflora, from southern Europe. * gT 
*** Flowers and scales larger; lobes of calyx and corolla narrower: Var. Cesatiana, from Italy and Central Asia. |i< 
**** Calyx large, cupulate, lobes somewhat carinate: Var. Cordofana, from Africa. 1| 
Var. a. vera. G. obtusiflora, HBK.! N. Gen. Sp. III. 122. C. inodora, Willd.! Hb. nro. 3164. — Flowers\Jf V V 
scarcely more than 1 line long ; lobes of calyx very unequal, as in many other forms of the species ; scales spatulatg,^ , 
very small and thin, but slightly fimbriate or crenate; capsule lj-lj lines in diameter, dotted with, in the dry state, 
dark red glands. — Andes of Peru, Humboldt! Guayaquil, Jameson! 542 ; New Grenada, Holton ! 544, a specimen R 
with mbre slender styles ; Triana, Linden! 168; Antioquia on the Magdalena River, Jarvis! 1500. This last specimen, fk 
with a glandulous corolla and rather larger, more deeply fimbriate scales, forms a transition to the next. 
Var. /3. glandulosa : calyx, corolla, and capsule dotted with red and shining glands ; calyx shorter than tube 
in some and quite as large as that in other specimens ; scales large, often exceeding the tube, deeply fringed, incurved; 
flower 1-lj lines long ; capsule l|~lf lines in diameter. — Parasitic on Polygonum in most of the specimens examined; 
Georgia, Boykin! Florida, Rugel! 400; Louisiana, Tainturier! Western Texas, Wright! Bigelow! Schott! Bahama 
Islands, in Hb. Hooker ! Cuba, Pceppig! under the name of G. Americana. 
Var. y. ?. latiloba: flowers larger, 1|- lines long, of a more fleshy or, when dry, coriaceous substance; calyx 
and capsule glandulous; lobes of calyx very unequal; these, the lobes of the corolla, and the large, deeply fringed 
scales broadly oval, almost orbicular; styles short, thick. — Martaban, Wallich! Cat. 1320 s under the name of G. sul¬ 
cata. — It seems to differ from G. obtusiflora by the more fleshy erect lobes of the corolla, and especially by the more 
paniculate than globose inflorescence, but it certainly cannot be united with G. sulcata (Ghinensis), where Wallich and 
Choisy place it. The specimens are without fruit. , 
Var. 8. australis. G. australis , R. Brown! Prod. I. 491. — Flowers in this, as in all the forms enumerated 
above, 5-parted, scarcely more than 1 line long, dotted with glands all over; scales bifid or often reduced 
to one or a few lateral teeth ; styles short, usually more slender than in the American forms. — G. Mil - [493 (43)] 
lettii, Hook. & Arn.! Bot. Beechy, 201, is the same plant, flowers rather less glandulous, styles stouter. — 
New Holland: Port Jackson, R. Brown! F. Bauer! Caleyl Golbourn River, F. Mueller! Canton, China, Millett! — 
Mr. Mueller’s specimen is almost destitute of glands and also of scales. Only here and there single or bifid 
teeth are noticed at the base of the filaments. I can distinguish it from the following form only by its 5-parted 
flowers. 
Var. e. breviflora. C. bremflora , Visiani! FI. Dalm. II. 231. G. Tinei, Insenga! in Tin. PI. Rar. Sic. p. 14. 
G. aurantiaca, Requien! in sched.; Bertol. FI. It. VII. 623. C. chrysocoma , Welw.! in sched.; DesM. Et. 71. 
Botanical 
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