CURVEMBRY2E. 369 



majority are herbs, some are shrubs. The leaves are scattered, or opposite, 

 but always simple and without stipules ; some are smooth, others hairy. 



450 species ; especially in the Tropics, principally S. Am. and E. Ind. : 

 few are found outside these countries. Only a few are used; some, chiefly 

 E. Indian species, are cultivated as ornamental plants: Amaranthus (Fox- 

 tail); Gomphrena globosa ; Celosia cristata (Cock's-comb) remarkable for 

 its fasciated inflorescence ; Alternanthera. Some are employed as culinary 

 plants in the Tropics, and in a few of the E. Indian species the seeds are 

 farinaceous, arid used for food. 



Order 3. Chenopodiaceae. Generally herbaceous plants like 

 the Caryophyllaceee, but the leaves are arranged spirally (except 

 Salicornia), and are simple, exstipulate ; they are generally fleshy 

 and like the stem " mealy," that is, covered with small hairs, whose 

 large spherical terminal cell readily falls away; otherwise they 

 are seldom hairy. The inflorescences are generally flower-clusters 

 borne in panicles. Bracteoles generally absent. Flowers gene- 

 rally unisexual : with the single exception of Beta the flowers are 

 hypogynous ; they are regular, small and inconspicuous, with single, 

 green, 5-leaved, but more or less united perianth ; 5 stamens opposite 

 the perianth, and a 2-5-carpellate, unilocular ovary with 1 basal, 

 curved ovule; but in some genera the number of the perianth-leaves 

 and stamens is reduced to 3-2-1-0. The fruit is generally a 

 nut, thus this flower and fruit are the same as in the reduced 

 Caryophyllaceas (Fig. 361 F). The seed is similar to that generally 

 found in the family (for exceptions see the genera). 



The floral diagram most frequently present is the same as in Fig. 361 F. There 

 is no indication of corolla or of corolla-stamens, which may be supposed to have 

 belonged to the plant, but which are now entirely and completely suppressed. 

 This order appears to have been an offshoot from the Caryophyllacete. The 

 perianth persists after the withering of the flower, and envelopes the nut ; it is 

 very variable, and. together with the position of the seed, the form of the 

 embryo, the sex of the flowers, etc., gives the characters of the genera. 



I. CHEXOPODIE^E, GOOSEFOOT GROUP (Fig. 365), has " (or poly- 

 gamous) flowers, with regular 5-parted perianth (C) ; the em- 

 bryo is ring-like (J?). The leaves have the ordinary flat forms. 

 Chenopodium (Goosefoot). The flower is hypogynous, and the 

 fruit (which is compressed) perfectly free ; Mulberry-like collec- 

 tions of fruits are formed in some species (sub-genus Blitum} by 

 the perianth becoming finally fleshy and coloured. Beta (Beet, 

 Mangold, Fig. 365) differs from all genera in the perianth, which 

 finally becomes cartilaginous, being epigynous (I)). Small, most 

 frequently 2-3-flowered clusters without bracteoles, situated in a 



