CHENOPODIACEAE. 113 



petioled, acuminate, slightly ciliate, 1-7 cm. long; sheath oblique, 

 rough on the margin; axillary clusters loosely flowered; flowers 

 greenish, pendulous on slender pedicels; calyx 5-parted, closely 

 investing the achene; stamens 8; style short, nearly entire; stigmas 3; 

 achene 3-angled, granular. 



Cultivated fields about Pasadena, McClatchie. 



Family 25. CHENOPODIACEAE. 



GoosEFOOT Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, often succulent, mealy or scurfy, some- 

 times fleshy. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, some- 

 times wanting, without stipules. Flowers perfect or uni- 

 sexual, with an herbaceous calyx of 2-5 often keeled 

 rigid sepals, or sometimes wanting in pistillate flowers. 

 Stamens distinct, as many as the sepals and opposite 

 them or fewer; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 1- 

 celled, 1-ovuled, becoming an achene or utricle in fruit. 

 Embryo annular and surrounding the endosperm or 

 spiral and with the endosperm lateral or wanting. 



1. NITROPHILA Wats. 



A low decumbent perennial herb, with fleshy opposite 

 amplexicaul leaves and axillary perfect flowers. Sepals 



