beautifulflowers032840mbp

72 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS OF KASHMIR [Plate 46
CONYOLYULACEAE.
The Convolvulus Family.
CUSCUTA, Linn.
The Dodder.
(Cuscuta is the Italian name of the plant, also called cassuto and
perhaps derived from this. Cassuto comes from the Greek kassyo,
to stick together, because the Dodder entwines other plants
; accord -
ing to others it is derived from the Arabic Chasuth.)
Leafless,
twining parasites.
A. Styles 2, distinct.
I. Flowers forming heads. Stigmas elongate
or linear.
1. Styles as long as the stigmas ... C. capitata.
2. Styles shorter than the stigmas.
a. Corolla-tube as long as the calyx C. europaea.
b. Corolla-tube longer than the calyx C. planiflora.
II. Flowers not forming heads. Stigmas pinhead
shaped
... ... ... ... C. chinensis.
B. Style 1.
I. Corolla J-i in. long C. reflexa.
II. Corolla i-i in. long C. gigantea.
Fig. 4. Cuscuta capitata, Eoxb.
(Capitata means head-shaped, alluding to the flowers forming
heads.)
A slender, rose-coloured plant.
Flowers small, forming heads.
Sepals ife-iV in. long, egg-shaped. Corolla scarcely J in. long,
contracted at the mouth, covered with very small warts
without, lobes 5, small, triangular, almost erect, small scales
low in the corolla slightly fringed. Styles linear-lance-shaped,
as long as the short-linear stigmas. Stamens inserted near
the throat of the corolla-tube, filaments short, linear. Fruit a
capsule, rV in. long, very thin and fragile, enclosed by the
unchanged corolla, irregularly breaking up from the base.
Seeds 4, brown, ellipsoid. ,
Flowers. June.
Locality. Takht, on a shrub belonging to the Labiatae.
Distribution. Temperate W. Himalaya, 6,000-12,000 ft.,
from Kashmir to Simla, Afghanistan.