68 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
26. CHENOPODIACEZ. Goosreroor FAMILY. 
Herbs or shrubs. Leaves simple, alternate, without sti- 
pules. Flowers small, regular, either perfect or more or 
less moncecious or dicecious. Calyx free from the ovary. 
Corolla wanting. Stamens usually 5, opposite the sepals. 
Styles or stigmas generally 2. Fruit with 1 seed, usually 
enclosed in a small, bladdery sac, sometimes an akene. 
I. SPINACIA, Tourn. 
Herbs. Flowers diccious, in close axillary clusters. Stami- 
nate flowers 3—5-sepaled, with 4 or 5 projecting stamens. 
Pistillate flowers with a tubular 2-toothed or 4-toothed calyx. 
1. S. oleracea, Mill. Sprnacu. A soft annual or biennial herb. 
Leaves triangular, ovate, or halberd-shaped, petioled. Cultivated 
from Asia as a pot-herb. 
Il. CHENOPODIUM, Tourn. 
Annual or perennial herbs. Stems erect or spreading. 
Leaves alternate, usually white-mealy. Flowers small, green- 
FIG. 11.— Chenopodium. 
A, flower; B, fruit. 
ish, in panicled spikes. Calyx 3-5-parted, the lobes often 
slightly fleshy and keeled. Stamens 5; filaments thread- 
shaped. Styles 2-3, distinct or united at the base. Seed 
lens-shaped.* 
