THE DODDER.


The genus _Cuscuta_ contains quite a number of species which go under
the common name of dodder, and which have the peculiarily of living as
parasites upon other plants. Their habits are unfortunately too well
known to cultivators, who justly dread their incursions among cultivated
plants like flax, hops, etc.

All parasitic plants, or at least the majority of them, have one
character in common which distinguishes them at first sight. In many
cases green matter is wanting in their tissues or is hidden by a
livid tint that strikes the observer. Such are the Orobanchaccae, or
"broomropes," and the tropical Balanophoraceae. Nevertheless, other
parasites, such as the mistletoe, have perfectly green leaves.

However this may be, the naturalist's attention is attracted every time
he finds a plant deprived of chlorophyl, and one in which the leaves
seem to be wanting, as in the dodder that occupies us. In fact, as the
majority of parasites take their nourishment at the expense of the
plants upon which they fasten themselves, they have no need, as a
general thing, of elaborating through their foliar organs the materials
that their hosts derive from the air; in a word, they do not breathe
actively like the latter, since they find the elements of their
nutrition already prepared in the sap of their nurses. The dodders,
then, are essentially parasites, and their apparent simplicity gives
them a very peculiar aspect. Their leaves are wholly wanting, or are
indicated by small, imperceptible scales, and their organs of vegetation
are reduced to a stem and filiform branches that have obtained for them
the names of _Cheveux de Venus_ (Venus' Hair) and _Cheveux du Diable_