-BasELta.] CHENOPODIACEZ. | 27 
B. rubra, Linn. Sp. Pl. 272 ; F. B. I. v, 20 ; Watt EB. D. ; Duthie 
Field and Gard. Crops N. W. Prov. and Oudh, part iii, 19 ; Prain 
Beng. Pl. 882; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 509. B. alba, Linn. ; Roxb. 
Fl. Ind. ii, 104.—Vern. Poi, lal-bachlu. (Indian Spinach.) 
A glabrous fleshy perennial much-branched climbing herb, often tinged! 
with red. Leaves 2-5 in. long or more, broadly ovate, acute or acum- 
nate, thick, entire, often cordate at the base ; petioles 4-1 in. long. © 
Flowers sessile, white or red, in lax axillary peduncled spikes 1-6 in. 
long ; bracts apiculate, bracteoles longer than the perianth, oblong, 
obtuse. Perianth remaining closed, divided half-way down; lobes 
elliptic, obtuse. Utricle red white or black, about the size of a pea. 
Wild and cultivated within the area. It flowers during the cold season 
Distris.: Throughout the hotter portions of India and in Ceylon 
extending to other parts of Trop. Asia and to Trop. Africa. Rox- 
burgh describes five varieties in Bengal, 2 of them wild and 3 
cultivated ; also a further kind (B. lucida, L. and B. cordifolia 
Lamk.). This latter is a much larger and more succulent plant, 
and is the one chiefly grown in Bengal for use as a pct-herb. It 
is usually raised from cuttings and planted so as to climb over 
the roofs of native houses and on trellises, where it affords both shade: 
and food. ? 
The following cultivated species belonging to genera which are not in- 
digenous within the area of this flora should be mentioned :— 
Beta vuuearis, Linn.; F. B. I. v,5; Wait E. D. ; DC. L’Orig. Pl. 
Cult. 46; Duthie Field and Gard. Crops, part iii, 19 ; Prain Beng. 
Pl. 879 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 509. B. benghalensis, Roxb. Fl. Ind. 
vii, 59.—Vern Chukandar, paladk, palang. (Garden bect). Extensively 
grown in India for its root, which is used chiefly by Europeans as a. 
salad. B. benghalensis is a form with more erect branches. It is 
much cultivated by the natives of N. India for the sake of its leaves 
which are eatenas a vegetable. B. maritima L., from which the beet 
and the mangold-wurzel are supposed by some to have originated, 
has decumbent branches. The genus Beta difiers from Chenopodium 
in the presence of both bracts and bracteoles, and by the perianth 
becoming thickened and hard at the base. 
SPINACIA OLERACEA, Linn. ; F. B. I. v, 6; Watt BE. D.; DC. L’Orig. 
Pl. Cult. 78; Prain Beng. Pl. 880; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 509. 8. 
tetrandra, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 771, Royle Ill. 318.—Vern. Palak 
(Spinach). This plant is largely grown in Indian native gardens, 
