2850
CUSCUTA Epilinum.
Flax Dodder.
PENTANDBIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Calyx 4-5 cleft, inferior. Corolla 4-5
cleft with (“ or without ”) an equal number of
membranous scales placed within the stamens.
Caps, bursting all round at the base, 2-celled,
cells 2-seeded.
Spec. Char. Heads of flowers nearly sessile, subtended
by an ovate blunt bractea. Scales
broad, palmate subsexfid, closely adpressed to
the ventricose tube of the corolla. Calyx fleshy
and succulent. Sepals deltoid below, nearly as
long as the corolla.
Cuscuta Epilinum. Weil te in Boeningh. Prod. FI.
Monast. 75. Reich, Iconog. t. 500. FI. Excurs.
586. Koch. Syn. 495. Hooker Br. FI. ed. 4.
109. Mert. and Koch Devisch. FI. v. 2. 331.
Wimm. and Grab. FI. Files, v. 1. 247. Leight.
FI. Shrops. 125.
F o u n d in August, 1836, on cultivated flax in a field
adjoining the road near Oroesmere, 3 miles south of Ellesmere,
Salop, and also in August, 1839, at Trelydan Hall,
near Welsh Pool, Montgomeryshire, on both occasions by
Mr. J. E. Bowman, through whose kindness the specimens
figured were obtained from the latter station.
Although not previously regarded as a native of Britain,
it is probable that all the specimens of C. europce, said to
have been gathered upon flax, will prove to belong to this