works, including a _Commentary on the Bible_ (1765-1770). A list of his
fifty-five writings and an account of the writer is included in the
_Thoughts in Prison_.

See also P. Fitzgerald, _A Famous Forgery_ (1865).

DODDER (Frisian _dodd_, a bunch; Dutch _dot_, ravelled thread), the
popular name of the annual, leafless, twining, parasitic plants forming
the genus _Cuscuta_, formerly regarded as representing a distinct
natural order Cuscutaceae, but now generally ranked as a tribe of the
natural order Convolvulaceae. The genus contains nearly 100 species and
is widely distributed in the temperate and warmer parts of the earth.
The slender thread-like stem is white, yellow, or red in colour, bears
no leaves, and attaches itself by suckers to the stem or leaves of some
other plant round which it twines and from which it derives its
nourishment. It bears clusters of small flowers with a four- or
five-toothed calyx, a cup-shaped corolla with four or five stamens
inserted on its tube, and sometimes a ring of scales below the stamens;
the two-celled ovary becomes when ripe a capsule splitting by a ring
just above the base. The seeds are angular and contain a thread-like
spirally coiled embryo which bears no cotyledons. On coming in contact
with the living stem of some other plant the seedling dodder throws out
a sucker, by which it attaches itself and begins to absorb the sap of
its foster-parent; it then soon ceases to have any connexion with the
ground. As it grows, it throws out fresh suckers, establishing itself
firmly on the host-plant (fig. 2). After making a few turns round one
stem the dodder finds its way to another, and thus it continues twining
and branching till it resembles "fine, closely-tangled, wet catgut." The
injury done to flax, clover, hop and bean crops by species of dodder is
often very great. _C. europaea_, the greater dodder (fig. 1) is found
parasitic on nettles, thistles, vetches and the hop; _C. Epilinum_, on
flax; _C. Epithymum_, on furze, ling and thyme. _C. Trifolii_, the
Clover Dodder, is perhaps a subspecies of the last mentioned.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--_Cuscuta europaea_, Dodder.

1. Flower removed from 2, Calyx.
3. Ovary cut across.
4. Fruit enveloped by a persistent corolla.
5. Seed.
6. Embryo.

1-6 enlarged.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_Cuscuta glomerata_. Section through union
between parasite and host.

c, stem of host.
d, stem of _Cuscuta_.
h, hausto