CHENOPODIACE 115 
2, BLITUM, L, 
Flowers bisexual; sepals persistent, fleshy and swollen; 
styles 2; seed-vessel enclosed in the fleshy berry-like 
calyx. 
B. virgatum, L.; stem very leafy, flowers green then 
red, solitary in the axils of the leaves, and forming a 
long leafy spike; stony places; Southern Switzerland, 
Tirol, Dauphiny. 
3. ATRIPLEX, Tourn. 
Flowers small, unisexual, without bracts, in clusters 
collected into branched cymes; stamens 3-5; styles 2; 
leaves alternate; seed-vessel a utricle enclosed in the 
enlarged calyx. 
The only species of Orache undoubtedly wild in Swit- 
zerland are A. patula, L., with oblong or oblong-lanceolate 
leaves ; and sastata, L., with broader more hastate leaves ; 
both in waste places, the latter rare. 
Order LXXI.—POLYGONACE. 
Flowers usually bisexual, often pink; sepals 3-6, per- 
sistent, green or pink; stamens 5-8; ovary superior, 
I-celled, 1-ovuled; styles 1-3; leaves alternate, usually 
quite entire, with sheathing stipules (ochrez) ; seed-vessel 
a nut containing a single seed. A large order, chiefly of 
temperate regions ; very few alpine species. 
1. POLYGONUM, L. 
Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes; sepals 5, 
usually pink; stamens 5-8; stigmas 2-3. 
