But when we come to the dodders, they have no leaves at all. The reason for this is, they do no work for themselves. The green leaves, as you know, prepare the food for the plant and work very hard to do it. If the dodders have no leaves, where do they get their food? That is just the trouble. They make other plants give it to them. They are very much like tramps, going about and living on other people. Only they are worse than tramps, for they do not say, “Please give me something to eat. I am hungry and want some starch and nitrogen compounds.” They do nothing of the sort. They catch hold of another plant and take away its juices without leave or license. So you see they are really thieves and robbers, these rascally dodders. No wonder the morning-glories are not proud of them. Not that the dodders care. It is a question whether they even know they are related to the morning-glories. They think of little but how to get something to eat out of other people. They begin their shameful career from the very seed. Instead of sprouting in the spring with the other seeds, they lie still until all the other plants have gone out of their seeds and are at work making green leaves and storing their stems with plant juices. [Illustration: [Dodder]] [Illustration: [Dodder]] Then Dodder the Robber comes out. But instead of sending down a root and up a stem like other seeds, he just pushes out a little thread-like body, which fastens into the ground. You might think this an honest little root going down into the ground if you did not know friend Dodder. But it is no root; it does not suck up juices from the earth: it simply anchors the little robber so he cannot be blown away. Now the thread-like body grows larger and sticks up out of the ground, carrying the seed-coat with it. The seed-coat is packed with food which the parent plant stored away there. The young dodder nourishes itself with this food until it is all gone; then it casts off the empty seed-coat, and behold young Dodder ready for the fray. What he very much wants at this time is a fresh young twig to cling to and suck the juice out of. If nothing of the sort is handy he is in a bad way, for he is too helpless to do anything for himself. He has no green leaves, and does not know how to make any, and without green leaves he cannot get a thing to eat. Poor Dodder! after all, it is not wholly his fault he is such a good-for-nothing specimen of planthood. You see he came from bad stock. His parents were like this before him, and no one has ever taught him any better. Well, there he lies, as helpless a plant as you can imagine. But just let a green shoot come within reach! _Then_ you will see! He twists around it without stopping to say “by your leave.” He pierces it with little suckers that draw out its juices. Now Dodder is all right. He has plenty of food without the trouble of making a bit of it himself. [Illustration: [Dodder]]