XCIX. PlIYTOLACCEiE. 311 



bottom of the periautli, as many or twice as many as tlic 

 perianth-segments or more numerous. Ovary of many 1- 

 celled carpels, forming a whorl on the receptacle ; styles 

 attached to the inner face of the carpel, recurved, stigmatose 

 on the inner lace ; ovules solitary, basifixed. Fruit of Liany free 

 or connate drupes berries nuts or utricles. Seeds with usually 

 copious floury albumen, round which the embryo is curved. 

 — Herbs shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, simple, entire. 

 Stipules present or 0. Flowers usually spiked or racemose. 



1. PHYTOLACCA, Linn. 



Flowers 3-bracteate. Perianth herbaceous or petaloid, as- 

 cending or reflexed. Stamens 5-30, on a fleshy disk. Carpels 

 5-12, free or connate. Fruit of numerous small, fleshy 

 drupes, together forming a berry. — DC. Frod. xiii. pt. 2. ^:>. 31 ; 

 Pircunia,p. 29. 



Herbs slirubs or rarely trees, with spiciform racemes of grcenisii flowers. 

 1 species, native of the Orange and Caledon rivers. 



Order C. CHENOPODIE^. 



Calyx 5- (rarely 4-2-)parted or cleft, herbaceous, often 

 changing in fruit, imbricate in bud. Stamens inserted in the 

 base of the perianth, as many as its segments and opposite 

 them, rarely fewer. Ovary single, free, or nearly so, 1-celled ; 

 ovule solitary, attached to the base of the cell, sessile or on a 

 basal cord ; styles 2-4, terminal, more or less united ; stigmas 

 divergent. Fruit w^tb a membranous pericarp, enclosed in 

 the more or less altered, persistent calyx. Seed horizontal or 

 vertical, erect or inverted ; embryo either curved round floury 

 albumen, or, in the exalbuminous genera, spiral. — Herbs or 

 halfshrubs, with (mostly) alternate, exstipulate leaves, and 

 minute, green flowers. Many are found by the seashore or in 

 salt ground, others by roadsides and in rubbish. None are 

 poisonous. Many contain large quantities of carbonate of 

 soda. 



* Stems not jointed, leafy ; leaves expanded, pe- 

 tioled. 

 Flowers bisexual, ebracteate; ovary depressed ; 



seed horizontal 1 . ChenopoDIUM. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious ; the females 

 bracteate ; seed erect. 

 Female flowers witli a minute, 3-5-parted 



calyx ; fruit subyloboso 2. ExoMis. 



Female flower without calyx ; fruit com- 

 pressed. 

 Bracts in fruit dilated, oppressed, erect . 3. Atkh^lex. 



