GOOSEFOOT TRIBE 91 



odour of the living plant, and afterwards of that of the dead animal. Subse- 

 quent researches showed the correctness of these conjectures, by actually 

 extracting it from both. As is the ease with some of the natui'al vegetable 

 perfumes, therefore, we can uoav prepare by art the stinking constituents of 

 the Cxoosefoot, should their production ever be likely to lead to profit." The 

 Professor suggests that it may probably be used for some of those fishy- 

 smelling compounds used at table, such as anchovy sauce ; or may be 

 employed by the cook in giving a flavour to imitate that of oyster patties, 

 or similar dishes, usually made of lobster, crayfish, shrimps, or other 

 crustaceans. 



This Goosefoot grows on waste places, about walls, and by road-sides, 

 especially in the neighliourhood of the sea. It was once highly valued for 

 the antispasmodic medicine furnished by its juices, and it is still used in 

 country places for this purpose ; whilst some years ago it was cultivated in 

 the herb gardens of Surrey, and annually sold in Covent-Garden Market for 

 its medicinal uses. Its small green blossoms grow in dense spikes, in August 

 and September, and the whole plant is very succulent. It is also known 

 under Linmvus' name C. vulvaria. 



2. Many-seeded Goosefoot {C. 'poJijspermum). — Leaves egg-shaped, 

 sessile ; flowers in branched, axillary, somewhat slender spikes ; annual. 

 This is the C. acutifoliimi of some botanists. The spikes of flowers are very 

 variable, and sometimes leafy and leafless on the same plant. This Goose- 

 foot is found, but not very commonly, in damp waste places, and cultivated 

 ground. It varies from four inches to a foot in height ; and the leaves have 

 usually a good deal of redness. The flowers, which appear in August and 

 September, are greenish, or tinged with red, and are rendered pretty by their 

 numeroiis shining seeds, which are deep brown, minutely dotted, and are not 

 concealed liy the perianth. 



* * Leaves toothed, angled, or lobed. 



3. Upright Goosefoot (C. urhicmn). — Leaves triangular, toothed, or 

 nearly entire, their base contracted into the leaf-stalk ; spikes erect, nearly 

 leafless, compound ; seeds very minutely rough, blunt at the edge ; annual. 

 A variety of this plant occurs having leaves with short triangular teeth ; and 

 a common form, sometimes called C. intermedium, has large acute teeth. The 

 Upright Goosefoot is found on waste places near walls, and about towns and 

 villages, in many parts of the kingdom, though it is scarcely wild in Scotland. 

 The leaves are large, of a pale almost glaucous green tint, and in the common 

 form deeply and irregularly toothed. The flowers grow in spikes in August 

 and September, and are pale green, and the seeds are almost as large as rape 

 seeds. Dr. George Johnston, remarking some years since on this plant, says, 

 "It is interesting as the subject of a strange story, which purports that this 

 weed could, l)y cultivation, be turned into a real strawberry, and relative to 

 which there is a curious letter from the hapless Josephine to her gardener in 

 her Memoirs." 



4. Nettle-leaved Goosefoot (C v/n/m'/^^).— Leaves shining, egg-shaped, 

 somewhat rhomboid, acute, sharply toothed, entire at the base ; flowers in 

 spreading, branched, leafless cymes ; seeds minutely granulated, acutely 



12—2 



