GOOSEFOOT TRIBE 95 



angular, somewhat 3-lobed, unequally cut a nd toothed ; upper leaves lanceolate, 

 toothed, and often 3-lobed at the base, or nearly entire ; perianth of the 

 fiuit rhomboid, acute, toothed, with two ii'regular rows of tubercles on the 

 back ; spikes axillary and terminal, few-flowered ; seeds tubercular, rough ; 

 annual. This is a common plant of the seashore, and is by some botanists 

 considered a sub-species of A. paiula. Mr. Babington, however, who thus 

 describes the plant, considers it truly distinct, and Mr. "Woods has called the 

 species A. hahinr/tonii, after that excellent botanist. 



6. Triangular-leaved Orache (J. deltoidea). — Stem mostly erect; 

 lower leaves halberd-shaped and triangular, unequally toothed ; perianth of 

 the fruit entire or toothed, iTsually covered on the back with sharp points ; 

 spikes nearly simple, forming a branched, many-flowered panicle ; seeds all 

 shining, smooth ; annual. In one variety of this plant all the leaves are 

 halberd-shaped and triangular, the perianth toothed and covered with spines, 

 and the stem and branches all erect or ascending. A very rare variety 

 occurring on the sea-coast has prostrate stems and branches, its upper leaves 

 lanceolate 'and entire, and the spikes only slightly branched. This is the 

 A. prostrata of some botanists. The first described form of the Triangular- 

 leaved Orache is not infrequent on waste and culti^'ated ground, flowering 

 from July to October. The seeds are black and wrinkled, not half so large 

 as the larger kind of A. jxitula, but similar to the smaller seeds of the spike 

 of that plant. 



7. Spreading Narrow-leaved Orache (A. angustifolia). — Stem erect 

 or prostrate, upper leaves lanceolate, almost entire, the lower ones with two 

 ascending lobes from a wedge-shaped base ; seeds smooth and shining ; 

 annual. In one form of this plant the perianth of the fruit is rhomboidal 

 with ascending lateral angles, entire, smooth on the back, and the spikes 

 interrupted and nearly unbranched ; in another, the lower leaves are deeply 

 cut and toothed ; the perianth of the fruit also toothed, and usually tubercled 

 at the back, and the spikes dense and many-flowered. The last variety is 

 the A. ereda of some writers, and the species, in all its forms, is thought by 

 some botanists to be but different states of the A. patula. This plant is not 

 unfrequent on cultivated and waste ground. It Avas one of the species most 

 frequently in former days boiled for spinach, and its foliage is perfectly 

 wholesome, though the seeds are said to be emetic. The Orache was in 

 former times commonly called Arrach ; and Parkinson says of the plants, 

 " There are many dishes of meate made of them, while they are you.ng ; for, 

 being almost without savours of themselves, they are the more convertible 

 into what relish anyone will make them with sugar and spices," etc. The 

 garden species, A. horfensis, which is a native of Tartary, was once very 

 generally cultivated in this country, for the table, and was called Orach, 

 Orage, or Mountain Spinach. An old writer says, "It is so commonly 

 known to every housewife that it Avere labour lost to describe it :" but some 

 old medical writers considered that its use caused pallor and dropsy. Either 

 the wild or cultivated kind was considered as an excellent out\vard applica- 

 tion to inflamed throats, and the decoction was commonly prescribed in cases 

 of jaundice. The garden Orache is still cultivated in Paris, and used fs we 

 use spinach. The French call the plant Arroche ; the Germans and Dutch, 



