284 GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 



92. PHYTOLACCACE-ZE, POKEWEED FAMILY. 



A small family, represented here only by a single species of the 

 principal genus, 



L PHYTOLACCA, POKE or POKEWEED. (A mongrel name, of 



the Greek word for plant prefixed to the French lac, lake, alluding to the 



crimson coloring-matter of the berries.) Calyx of 5 rounded petal-like white 



sepals. Stamens 5 - 30. Ovary of several cell? and lobes, bearing as many 



short styles, in fruit a depressed juicy berry, containing a ring of vertical 



seeds ; these formed on the plan of those of the next family. ^ 



P. decandra, Common p. or Score, Garget, &c. Coarse smooth 



weed of low grounds, with large acrid-poisonous root, stout stems 6' - 9' high, 



alternate ovate-oblong leaves on long petioles, and racemes becoming lateral 



opposite a leaf, in summer, ripening the dark crimson purple berries in autumn ; 



stamens, styles, and seeds 10, 



93. CHENOPODIACE-SI, GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 



Represented chiefly by homely herbs, with inconspicuous green- 

 ish flowers ; the 1-celled ovary has a single ovule and ripens into 

 an akene or utricle, containing a single seed, usually with embryo 

 coiled more or less around mealy albumen. Leaves chiefly alter- 

 nate. Plants neither attractive nor easy to students ; only the 

 cultivated plants and commonest weeds here given. 



§ 1. Cultivated for ornament, twining plant, with white flowers : calyx corolla-like. 



1. BOUSSINGAULTIA. Flowers in slender spikes from the axils of the leaves, 



perfect. Calyx 6-parted, spreading, and with one or two exterior sepals or 

 bracts. Stamens 6, with slender filaments. Stj'le slender: stigmas 3, club- 

 shaped. Fruit a thin akene, pointed with the persistent style. 



§ 2. Cultivated for foocL, from Eu. : flowers greenish, as is usual in the family. 



2. BETA. Flowers perfect, clustered, with 3 bracts and a 5-cleft calyx becoming 



indurated in fruit, enclosing the hard akene, the bases of the two coherent. 

 Stamens 5. Style short : stigmas mostly 2. Seed horizontal. 



3. SPINACIA. Flowers dioecious, in axillary close clusters; the staminate ones 



racemed or spiked, consisting of a 4 - 5-lobed calyx and as many stamens. 

 Pistillate flowers with a tubular calyx which is 2-3-toothed at the apex and 

 2-3-horned on the sides, hardening and enclosing the akene. Styles 4. 

 Seed vertical. 



§ 3. Weeds of cultivation, or of roadsides, fields, ^c. Floioers perfect, bractless. 



4. BLITUM. Flowers in close axillary clusters or heads, which are sometimes 



confluent into inteiTupted spikes. Calyx 2-5-parted, becoming fleshy or 

 berry-like in fruit in the genuine species. Stamens 1-5. Styles or stigmas 

 2. Seed vertical in the calyx. 



5. CHENOPODIUM. Flowers in small clusters collected in spiked or sometimes 



open panicles. Calyx mostly 5-cleft, not succulent in fruit. Ovary and 

 utricle depressed. (Lessons, p. 130, fig. 297.) Styles 2, rarely 3. Seed 

 horizontal, or in a few species occasionally vertical. 



The following also are common species along the coast or near salt-water : — 



Atriplex p^tula, and one or two other species of Orache : most like 

 Spinacia, but scurfy or mealy. 



Salic6rnia herbacea, and two other species of Glasswort : low, leaf- 

 less, fleshy, jointed, branching plants, with the flowers sunken in the fleshy 

 spikes. 



Suasda maritima, Sea Elite : with branching stems, and small flowers 

 in the axils of linear nearly terete fleshy leaves. 



SMsola K^i, Saltwort : bushy-branching annual, with awl-shaped 



