TETRANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Cuscuta. 
251 
CUS'CUTA.* * Cal . four or five-cleft: Bloss. one petal, bell- 
shaped : Caps, two-celled, cut round : Seeds in pairs. 
C. Europce'a. Flowers nearly sessile; blossoms without scales: sum¬ 
mits acute. 
(Hook. FI. Lond. 67—E. Bot. 378. E.)—Blackw. 554,—FI. Dan. 199— 
Fuchs. 348— Matth. 1279— Trag. 810— Dod. 554— Lob. Ohs. 233. 1— 
Ger. Em. 577—Park. 10. 2 —Ger. 462— J. B. iii. 266. 
This plant is parasitical, without seed-lobes. The seed itself opens and 
puts forth a little spiral body, which does not seek the earth to take root, 
but climbs in a direction from right to left, up other plants, from which, 
by means of vessels, it draws its nourishment. Leaves none, except here 
and there a very small membranous scale lying close under a branch. 
Linn. {Stem thread-shaped, red, much branched, climbing to the height of 
two or three feet, adhering occasionally by short radicles. Flowers in 
dense round heads, whitish, usually five cleft, and pentandrous ; destitute 
of scales in the throat of the tube. Calyx reddish. Tube of the blossom 
bell-shaped, subsequently globose; limb short, permanent, as well as 
the stamens. Ger men globular. Styles short, reddish, with acute stigmas. 
Capsule globose, reticulated, invested with the dry blossom. Sm. Hook. 
Whole plant purplish red, except the blossom , which is nearly white. 
(Greater Dodder. (At Shipston-upon-Stour, Worcestershire. Rev. 
Dr. Jones, in Eng. FI. Musselburgh, near Edinburgh. Mr. Neill. 
Hook. Scot. Eadsey; S. Littleton, Worcestershire. Purton. E.) On 
hops, nettles, flax, thistles, and gorse. A. Aug.—Sept.f 
(C. Epith'ymum. Flowers sessile; with a notched scale at the base of 
each stamen. E.) 
E. Bot. 55—FI. Dan. 427— Park. 10. 1— Matth. 1277— Pomet. 42. 9. 
according to Thunberg, serves the Dutch boors for candles, and the Hottentots for cheese ! 
E.) It is used to tan calf skins. Horses and goats eat it; sheep and cows refuse it. 
Gathered in the autumn it dyes wool yellow. Linn. The Welsh make use of it for the 
same purpose. They also lay branches of it upon and under their beds, to keep off fleas and 
moths, and give it as a vermifuge in powder and infusion. Penn. Wales ii. p. 147. Its 
essential oil rises in distillation. When growing within reach of a sea-port I have known 
sailors gather it to make besoms for sweeping their ships. 
* (Supposed of Greek origin, and applied originally to a parasitic plant; but the exact 
meaning of the term is not now understood. E.) 
t (The fresh plant boiled in water, with a little ginger, operates as an aperient. Hill. 
E.) The seeds sown in a pot produced plants; but which quickly died, unless they could 
attach themselves to some other plant. Park, and Ray Hist. As soon as the shoots have 
twined about an adjoining plant, they send out from their inner surface a number 
of little vesicles or papillae, which attach themselves to the bark or rind. (Mr. 
Thomson says, “ Dodder germinates in the earth, arid, rising above it, shoots out filiform 
stems, which twine around the neighbouring plants, when its original root decays. He 
considers these small tubercles as absorbing warts, ( haustoria ), performing at the same time 
the functions of an attaching/h/m/wi (prop), and of a nutrient absorbing organ. By degrees 
the longitudinal vessels of the stalk, which appear to have accompanied the vesicles, shoot forth 
from their extremities, and make their way into the foster plant, by dividing the vessels, 
and insinuating themselves into the tenderest part of the stalk ; and so intimately are they 
united with it, that it is easier to break than to disengage them from it. Guettard in Gent. 
Mag. “ Thus throughout the vegetable world,’’ as the author of the ‘ Wonders of the 
Vegetable Kingdom’ justly remarks, <c a mutual dependance every where subsists. The 
strong assist the weak; and the helpless plant, which is unable to support itself, never 
seeks, without obtaining, the assistance of its more powerful neighbour. What a beautiful, 
and important lesson for the human race 1” 
