244 APETALOUS EXOGENS 



at base, finally indurated or externally suberose, 'the lobes keeled, incurred and 

 sub-saccate at apex. Seed depressed, loosely farinaceous. 

 Hob. Gardens, &c. Nat. of Europe, FL July. Fr. Septem. 



Obs. The variety, called "Sugar Beet," with a pale yellowish 

 root is extensively cultivated, on the continent of Europe, for the 

 purpose of making Sugar,^- -and has been partially tried, in thia 

 country : But, while we have the Sugar Maple and Sugar Cane to 

 supply us, it is not probable the Beet will be much relied upon, for 

 that object. A large white-rooted variety, called Mangel Wurtzel, 

 or Scarcity root (B. Cicla, L.), is sometimes cultivated as food for 

 Milch Cows, and other Stockr 



2. Flowers dioicous ; seeds vertical. 



349. SPI1VA V CIA, Tournef. 



[Latin, Spfna, a thorn; the covering of the fruit being often spinulose.] 

 STAMINATE FL. Calyx 4- or 5-parted; lobes equal. PISTILLATK 

 FL. Calyx ventricose-tubular, unequally 2- to 4- toothed. Ovary 

 ovoid; styles 4, elongated, capillary; stigmas the terminal super- 

 ficies. Akene compressed, included in the indurated tube of the 

 calyx, which is sometimes 2- or 3-horned on the back. Embryo 

 forming a ring round the albumen. Annuals : flowers greenish, 

 the pistillate in axillary clusters, the staminate in racemose-paniculate 

 clusters. 



1. S. OLERACEA, Miller. Leaves petiolate, hastate-lanceolate, in- 

 cised at base, or sagittate and entire. 

 POT-HERB SPINACIA. Spinach. 



Stem 18 inches to 2 feet high, somewhat branched, or often simple. Leaves 2 to 

 4 inches long, often cuneately tapering at base ; petioles 1 to 3 or 4 inches in 

 length. Fruit inclosed in the subglobose persistent calyx, which is often un- 

 armed. 

 Hob. Gardens. Nat. of the East. Fl. June. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. This well-known pot-herb is said to have been first brought 

 into Spain, by the Arabs ; thence diffused over Europe. 



ORDER LXXVIII. AMARANTHACEAE. 



Weed-like herbs; characters nearly as those of the preceding Order, but the 

 flowers imbricated with dry scarious persistent bracts, which are usually colored ; 

 calyx of 3 to 5 sepals, dry, scarious and persistent; stamens as many as the sepals, 

 and opposite them ; fruit a utricle, 1- or several-seeded, bursting irregularly ; seeds 

 lenticular-reniform, often vertical; embryo curved round farinaceous albumen. 



35O. AMARAWTHUS,* L. 



[Gr. a, not, maraino, to fade, and anthos, a flower ; the flowers not fading.] 

 Monoicously polygamous : Calyx of 3 or 5 sepals, mostly colored, 



* Several modern authors (as LINDLET, ENDUCHER, and MOQXJIN-TANDON) ar 

 endeavoring to restore the orthography of RAY, who, in his Historia Plantartfat 

 (fide MOQCIK, in DC. Prodr.), says " Amarantus maid cum th scribitur Amaranth** : 

 nm graece est amarantos, Ac." But, as HOOKER, GRAY, and others, adhere to th 

 orthography which has been long established in our own language, and whh 

 which we have become so familiar, I have concluded to follow their example. 



