CHENOPODIACEAE 463 
l. BETA L. Fleshy edible herbs. Leaves alternate: blades soft, more 
or less crisped. Flowers SEM elustered and coherent by their bases. Calyx 
herbaceous, hardened an osed in fruit. 
Sti ntror Utricle snalosad achene- 
like.—About 14 species, Eurasian 
1. B. vulgaris L. Annual or ipsun with 
8 conie or m root, commonly purplish: 
stem 3-7 dm. tall: le af- blades ovate to 
elliptic-ovate, "0.5-1.5 dm. long:  sepals 
oblo mm 
keeled: fruit 4-5 mm. long.—(BzErT.)— 
S at. 
of Eu. and DM — (Mex.)—Sum.—fall.—The 
plant has been used as a table vegetable 
from Prehistoric prom The root of one 
variety is mportant source of sugar.— 
The fiers Mis greenish or reddish. 
OLOMA Mog. Coarse erect or spreading scurfy-pubescent herbs. 
gcns alternate: blades irregularly toothed. Flowers mostly perfect, or some- 
times pistillate. Calyx with triangular-ovate 
obes, developing a horizontal wing below the 
lobes. Utricle depressed- globose, nearly en- 
closed.—One species. 
1. C. atriplicifolium  (Spreng.) Coulte 
Annual, 1.5-8 dm. tall: leaf-blades iene cla 
to elliptic, 2-8 em. long, sinuate-dentate: 
sepals EE red or purple in age: 
Wing 
utricle 2-3 mm. wide, the surrounding 
di; er: seed a 
wide.— (WINGED PIGWEED.)— andhills, sandy 
eee and Ko various "Heil Miss. to 
Tex., Ariz., Man., and Mass.—Sum 
3. ROUBIEVA Moq. Strong-scented prostrate or procumbent pubescent 
herbs. Leaves alternate: blades sinuate-dentate or pinnatifid. Flowers per- 
fect, or by abortion, pistillate, solitary or 
clustered in the axils. Calyx with rounde 
lobes, saccate and reticulate in age. Utricle 
compressed-globose, enclosed.—One species. 
R. multifida (L.) Moq. Perennial, the 
Eds 1.5-7 dm rd yes blades elliptie 
in outline or narrower, 1—4.5 em. long, deeply 
p atifid nui ng pend. lobe d near the 
of the stem; sepals 3-5: utricle glan- 
Feu Nd in the obovoid-calyx; seed 
about 1 mm. in nee adc IBCoS an 
cult. gro unds, Coastal Plain and acd 
adj. pu Fla. to Ala. and N. Y. Nat 
S. —Sum.-fall—The flowers are 
preci 
