DODDER (AS. dodder, probably connected, as being a yellow plant, with AS. dydrin, °Sax. dodro, toto•o, yolk of an egg). Cuseuta. A genus of plants referred by some botanists to the natural order Convolvulacete. and regarded by others as the type of a small distinct order Cusenta•ex. The plants are leafless. climbing parasites, with flowers in dense clusters; have scales on the tube of the corolla alternate with its segments, and a spiral thread-like embryo, lying in a mass of fleshy albumen. The cotyle dons are so small that the embryo has been de scribed as destitute of them. There are about fifty known species of Cuseuta, chiefly found in the warmer temperate parts of the globe, about twenty occurring in the United States. The name dodder is often extended to all of them. One or two species of Cuseuta are natives of Great Britain, parasitic on leguminous plants, heath, thyme, hops, nettles. etc. A species of dodder, Cuseuta epilinum. is very injurious to crops of flax in Germany, and leguminous crops often suffer from Cuscuta epithynnun and Cus cuta trifolii in the south of Europe. Some of
these species have been introduced in clover and alfalfa seed from Europe and are fast becoming serious pests of clover and alfalfa fields. Only clean seed should he sown, and where dodder has become established the crop should be cut and burned before the dodder-seeds mature. it usually appear; first in isolated patches, the spreading of which may be prevented by careful attention. The seeds are slightly smaller than -lover-seed and may be screened out if (-arc be given the operation. The seed of dodder ger minates in the ground. but the stein soon seeks to attach itself to plants by little rootlets (hausto•ia) which it sends out. and the original root dies. The appearance of dodder has been described as resembling "line, closely tangled, wet catgut." For illustration. see Plate of PARA SITIC 1'T..\'cTS.