Common Dodder. Love Vine.
Cuscuta Gronovii. Convolvulus Family.
Stems.—Yellow or reddish, thread-like, twining, leafless. Flowers.—White, in close clusters. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Corolla.—With five spreading lobes. Stamens.—Five. Pistil.—One, with two styles.
Late in the summer we are perhaps tempted deep into some thicket by the jasmine-scented heads of the button-bush or the fragrant spikes of the clethra, and note for the first time the tangled golden threads and close white flower-clusters of the dodder. If we try to trace to their source these twisted stems, which the Creoles know as “angels’ hair,” we discover that they are fastened to the bark of the shrub or plant about which they are twining by means of small suckers; but nowhere can we find any connection with the earth, all their nourishment being extracted from the plant to which they are adhering. Originally this curious herb sprang from the ground which succored it until it succeeded in attaching itself to some plant; having accomplished this it severed all connection with mother-earth by the withering away or snapping off of the stem below.
The flax-dodder, C. Epilinum, is a very injurious plant in European flax-fields. It has been sparingly introduced into this country with flax-seed.
Traveller’s Joy. Virgin’s Bower.
Clematis Virginiana. Crowfoot Family.
Stem.—Climbing, somewhat woody. Leaves.—Opposite, three-divided. Flowers.—Whitish, in clusters, unisexual. Calyx.—Of four petal-like sepals. Corolla.—None. Stamens and Pistils.—Indefinite in number, occurring on different plants.
In July and August this beautiful plant, covered with its white blossoms and clambering over the shrubs which border the country lanes, makes indeed a fitting bower for any maid or traveller who may chance to be seeking shelter. Later in the year the seeds with their silvery plumes give a feathery effect which is very striking.
PLATE XXXI
TRAVELLER’S JOY.—Clematis Virginiana.
This graceful climber works its way by means of its bending or clasping leaf-stalks. Darwin has made interesting experiments regarding the movements of the young shoots of the Clematis. He discovered that, “one revolved describing a broad oval, in five hours, thirty minutes; and another in six hours, twelve minutes; they follow the course of the sun.”