43. CHENOPODIACE.E. 129 



3. P. Coronopus, L. BucJ^'s-hom Plantain. Vil- 

 lous annual or biennial ; leaves spreading in a radical 

 rosette, linear and pinnatifid, with long, linear-lanceolate 

 lobes; spikes slender, cylindrical, sometimes 8 cm. (over 

 3 in.) long; peduncles softlj- villous with appressed white 

 hairs, about as long as the leaves; bracts oval-acuminate, 

 as long as the sepals ; 2 upper sepals concave, with a 

 scarious, ciliate wing on the back, the 2 lower ones ciliate 

 on the outer edge; corolla brownish, with acute lobes and 

 downy tube: capsule usually 3-celled, with 1 winged seed in 

 each cell. 



Grange Road and Cheltenham. — Oct. -Feb. — Europe; 

 western Asia. 



Class 4.— MONOCHLAMYDE.E. 



Flowers with 1 floral envelope (perianth); all. the seg- 

 ments herbaceous and resembling a calyx, or colored like 

 petals, or scarious, or sometimes wanting. 



Family 43.— CHENOPODIACE/E. 



1. Chenopodium, L. 



(Greek hlien, a goose, and pons, foot; alluding to the 

 shape of the leaves.) 



Perianth herbaceous, usually of 5 segments or sepals ; 

 stamens usually 5 inserted at the base of the perianth, 

 opposite the segments; styles 2-3; fruit indehiscent, en- 

 closed in the persistant perianth, and consisting of a mem- 

 branous pericarp, separable or inseparable from the single 

 seed, which is depressed-globular in shape, with the embryo 

 coiled in a circle round the albumen. Mostly herbs; 

 flowers without bracts ; leaves stalked, alternate. 



Leaves green on both sides, coarsely toothed C. murale 1 



Leaves mealy below, sinuate-toothed. 



Prostrate fleshy-leaved plant C. glaucum 2 



Erect thin-leaved plant C. album 3 



1. Chenopodium murale, L. Nettle-leaved 

 Goosefoot. Annual, mealy on young parts and inflorescence; 

 stems erect or a.scending, much-branched, reddish, angular ; 

 leaves rather thick, green on both sides, or sometimes 

 slightly mealy below, lower ones broadly oval-rhomboidal, 

 upper ones lanceolate, all coarsely, irregularly and sharply 

 toothed except along the base; flower-clusters green, finally 

 red, in slender, leafless, Spreading, branched spikes, form- 

 ing loose axillary and terminal panicles, leafy near the 

 base; perianth concealing the fruit, segments keeled; 

 stamens 5; seed horizontal, dull-black, dotted, with a 

 sharply keeled edge. 



