.28 CHENOPOD1ACE&. 



and is much used as a pot-herb. Its original habitat as a wild plant 

 is not known. It differs from the Genus Chenopodium in having 

 1 -sexual flowers, the males being crowded in terminal leafless spikes 

 and the females arranged in axillary clusters. 



A.TRIPLEX HORTENSIS, Linn.; F. B. I. v, 6 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. 

 PI. 880 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb., ii, 502. An erect succulent annual, often 

 tinged with red or purple. The flowers are 1-sexual or polygamo- 

 dicecious. The female flowers have no perianth, its place being taken 

 by 2 bracteoles which become dilated and form a 2-valved covering 

 to the utricle. The plant is extensively cultivated as a pot-herb in 

 the plains of Upper India, as well as on the Himalaya up to 12,000 ft. 

 In Europe it is often grown as a vegetable under the name of " Orache" 

 or " Mountain Spinach." The origin of this species is not known 

 for certain. 



.A. NUMMTJLARIA, Lindl. is an Australian shrub known in that country 

 as the " Salt bush." It is much valued as affording good fodder for 

 sheep in the drought-affected areas, where it is able to hold its own 

 during very dry seasons when nearly all other vegetation disappears. 

 For this reason it was introduced into India about twenty years ago 

 by the writer in order to test its value as a reclamation plant on the 

 usar tracts of the Upper Gangetic Plain. Ihe results, however, 

 proved to be unsatisfactory owing to the excessive moisture in that 

 ^portion of India during the hot rainy season. 



XCIL POLYGONACE-3E. 



Herbs or shrubs, very rarely trees. Leaves usually alternate, 

 entire or sometimes serrulate ; stipules scarious or membranous, 

 usually sheathing the stem. Flowers small or medium-sized, regular, 

 usually 2-sexual, solitary or in axillary cymose clusters, pedicels 

 usually jointed. Perianth inferior, simple ; segments 3-6, free or 

 connate, imbricate in bud. Stamens 5-8, rarely more or fewer, 

 opposite the perianth-segments. Disk annular, glandular or none. 

 Ovary free, sessile, 1 -celled ; styles 3 or 2, rarely 4, free or connate ; 

 stigmas capitate, peltate or fimbriate ; ovule solitary, orthotropous, 

 sessile or on a distinct funicle. Fruit a small hard nut, compressed 

 or 3-gonous, rarely 4-gonous, enclosed in the persistent perianth. 



