GOOSEFOOT TEIBE 93 



considered a distinct species, and called C. hotryodrR. It is found on waste 

 ground near the sea in Cornwall, Suffolk, and Northumberland. The common 

 Red Goosefoot is quite a frequent plant of salt marshes in England, and 

 grows also near houses and about walls, but it is rare in Ireland. Its stem 

 is erect, about a foot high, and generally reddish, as are also the thick com- 

 pound spikes, which are numerous on the plant in August and September. 

 The flowers are generally incomplete, and the stamens one or two. 



10. Mercury Goosefoot, or Good King Henry (C bonus-henricus). — 

 Leaves halberd-shaped, triangular, mostly entire ; spikes compound, terminal 

 and axillary, erect, leafless ; stigmas elongated ; seeds smooth ajid shining ; 

 perennial. This is a dull-looking dark green succulent plant, about a foot 

 high, with spikes of dull green flowers in August, and large rather thick 

 leaves. The leaves when boiled form a tolerably good vegetable, resembling 

 spinach ; and the plant was of old times much cultivated in gardens, and 

 was so very generally a few years since, in the cottage plots of Boston, in 

 Lincolnshire. Though hardy and of early growth, it scarcely aflfords such 

 an amount of nutriment as would have merited its name ; but this was given 

 at a period when good edible vegetables were fewer. One of the Goosefoots 

 of Peru (C. quinoa), called by the people Petty Rice, is a most important 

 vegetable of that land. Its leaves form a common dish when boiled, but it 

 is the small round, nutritious seeds which are of greatest value, and the 

 flour or meal yielded by them is very similar to oatmeal. On the high table- 

 lands of Peru and Chili this Goosefoot is extensively cultivated, growing 

 at an elevation at which neither barley nor rye would ripen. Professor 

 Johnston remarks of this plant, that it is still the principal food of the 

 people who occupy these high lands, and that before the introduction of 

 European grains by the Spaniards it probably formed the chief nourishment 

 of the Peruvians. "A grain so nutritious," says this writer, "is a very 

 precious gift to the inhabitants of the elevated regions of the Andes. With- 

 out it these lofty plains could only be runs for cattle, like the summer 

 pastures among the valleys of the Alps." 



Our Good King Henry has ceased to be regarded as an important vege- 

 table, though it is still occasionally boiled by cottagers. It is a common 

 plant by waysides, and in waste places, and often grows among the broken 

 archways and walls of old ruins. 



3. Orache {Jfrijjiex). 



1. Shrubby Orache, or Sea Purslane {J. portulacdides). — Stem 

 shrubby ; leaves inversely egg-shaped, lanceolate, entire, narrow below ; 

 fruiting perianth, not stalked, inversely triangular, rounded below, with 2 to 4 

 unequal lobes above, and covered at the back with sharp points ; perennial. 

 This is a plant having a woody stem, and foliage of silvery whiteness and 

 much succulence. It is a low shrub or trailer, and it is not uncommon on 

 the seashore, on muddy or marshy soils of England, and is found rarely in 

 Ireland. It is often grown in gardens in pots. It is from one to three feet 

 high, and bears axillary spikes of small yellowish-green flowers from August 

 to October, but, like all the Oraches, is most readily distinguished from the 



