CHENOPODIACEiE. 11 



Var. a, genuinum. 



Plate MCLXXXV. 



C. polyspermum, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 1480. Linn. Herb. (!). 



" C. cymosum, Clievcd, PI. Par. Vol. III. p. 385." 



C. polyspermum, var. cymosum, Moq.-Tand. in B.O. Prod, "Vol. XIII. Pt. II. 62. 



Stems decumbent. Leaves generally obtuse. Flowers in axillary 

 compound leafless dichotomous cymes with divaricate branches ; cymes 

 are shorter than the leaves from which they spring. 



Yar. 3, acutifolium. 



Plate MCLXXXVI. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1318. 



C. acutifolium, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 1481. 



C. polyspermum, var. spicatum, Moq.-Tand. in D.O. Prod. Vol. XIII. Pt. II. p. 62. 



Stems erect or ascending. Leaves acute, the upper ones narrowly 

 lanceolate- elliptical. Flowers in erect spikes in the axils of the leaves 

 and at the apex of the branches, the lower spikes equalling or exceed- 

 ing the leaves ; all of them composed, towards the base, of small simple 

 cymes in the axils of minute leaves, and of sessile glomerules without 

 the leaves towards the apex. 



In rich cultivated ground and waste places, especially where the 

 ground has been recently turned up, and on old manure heaps. 

 Eather rare, but generally distributed over the south of England; 

 extending north to the counties of Notts, Derby, and Chester or South 

 Lancashire ; also on the ballast hills at the mouth of the Tyne. In 

 Ireland it has been found near Dublin and Cork, but believed to be 

 casually introduced. Var. 3, according to the general account, is the 

 more common form, but about London I have more frequently found 

 var. a. 



England, [Ireland.] Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Stems 3 inches to 3 feet long in var. a, 3 to 18 inches high in var. /3, 

 angular, often striped with green and red. Leaves rather shortly 

 stalked, the lamina of the largest f to 2 inches long, variable in breadth 

 and in the shape of the a^^ex, which is sometimes retuse with a small 

 apiculus, sometimes rounded and apiculate, and sometimes acute. 

 Flowers very minute, very numerous, green; in var. a, in evident 

 cymes ; but in var. 3 these cymes are usually only once forked, the 

 upper ones with the lateral branches so short that they are reduced to 

 glomerules : but, according to the observations of Professor Babington, 

 and the Rev. W. A. Leighton, and others, the examination of numerous 



c 2 



