DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 69 



I.e. hybridum, L. Maple-leaved Goosefoot. A tall annual 

 herb 2-4 ft. high. Leaves 2-6 in. long, thin, bright green, long, 

 taper-pointed, with several angled lobes on each side, terminating in 

 pointed teeth. Flower-clusters rather large, consisting of loosely 

 panicled racemes. A rather common weed. 



2. C. Botrys, L. Jerusalem Oak. A low spreading plant cov- 

 ered with sticky down. Leaves with slender petioles, oblong, sin- 

 uately lobed or the lobes pinnate. Flowers in loose, diverging, 

 leafless racemes. The whole plant is sweet-scented. Litroduced 

 from Em-ope and naturalized in gardens and along roadsides. 



27. PHYTOLACCACE^. Poke weed Family. 



Plants with alternate entire leaves. Mowers perfect, 5- 

 parted, with the characters of the Goosefoot Family, but the 

 ovary generally consisting of several carpels, which unite to 

 form a berry. 



PHYTOLACCA, Toum. 



Perennial herbs. Stems tall, branching. Leaves large, 

 entire. Flowers small, in terminal racemes, pedicels bracted. 

 Calyx of 4-5 nearly equal, persistent sepals. Stamens 5-15, 

 inserted at the base of the calyx. Styles 5-12, recurved at 

 the apex. Fruit a depressed-globose, juicy berry.^ 



1. "P. decandra, L. Pokeweed. Stems erect, smooth, branched 

 above, usually dark purple, 4-7 ft. tall ; root large, fleshy, poisonous. 

 Leaves ovate-lanceolate, smooth, acute, long-petioled. Racemes pedun- 

 cled, many-flowered, opposite the leaves, flowers white, becoming 

 purplish. Stamens 10, shorter than the sepals. Styles 10, car- 

 pels 10 ; fruit a dark purple berry. A weed on waste ground. 

 The young branches are often eaten like asparagus, and the root, 

 known as " garget root," is used in medicine.* 



28. AIZOACE^. Ice-plant Family. 



Mostly fleshy plants, mainly natives of Africa. Flowers 

 often large and showy. Stamens often doubled and some of 

 them petal-like. Ovary 2-many-celled. 



[Our only very common genus belongs to a subfamily 

 which has little resemblance to the fleshy ^' ice-plants," found 

 in some gardens, which best represent the family as a whole.] 



