CLASS V. ORDER II.] BETA. 427 



acute segments, green, with a pale thin membranous margin. Stamens 

 shorter than the perianth, with small oblong yellow anthers. Fruit 

 roundish, compressed, enclosed in the dried perianth. Seed roundish, 

 kidney-shaped, black, shining, with numerous small irregular deep 

 pitted dots. 



Habitat. Waste places, dunghills, &e. ; not common. About 

 London and Yarmouth. 



Annual ; flowering in August and September. 



Readily distinguished from C. album, by its dolled seeds, to which 

 it is nearly allied in the shape of its leaves, and the whole habit of the 

 plant. 



GENUS XC. BETA. LINN. Beet. 



Nat. Ord. CHENOPO'DE^E. VENT. 



GEN. CHAR. Perianth single, half inferior, five-cleft, persistent 

 Stamens inserted into the fleshy top of the germen. Fruit kidney- 

 shaped, enveloped in the capsular base of the calyx. Seed with a 

 coriaceous covering. Flowers two or three, united at the base. 

 Name from the Celtic word belt, according to This, which means 

 red ; others suppose it to come from the Greek word twrXor, 

 lie tola. 



1. B. marifima, Linn. (Fig. 492.) Sea Beet. Stem procumbent at 

 at the base ; flowers sessile, solitary, or in pairs in the axis of the leaves 

 of the spike ; segments of the calyx entire ; leaves ovate, obtuse. 



English Botany, t. 285. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 17. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 143. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 216. 



Hoot large, thick, tapering, fleshy, black externally, white within. 

 Stem procumbent at the base, from one to two feet high, angular, 

 furrowed, green, with reddish longitudinal lines, branched and leafy. 

 Leaves of a dark green, succulent, entire, with a waved margin, stout 

 mid-rib, and branched veins, those arising from the root and lower 

 part of the stem large, ovate, obtuse, spreading, on channeled foot- 

 stalks, dilated at the base, those of the stem nearly sessile, alternate, 

 waved, and somewhat lanceolate. Flowers small, greenish, sessile, 

 one or two together in the axis of the smatt leaves at the spikes, which 

 are long, numerous, terminal and lateral. Perianth single, of five 

 spreading obtuse segments, inserted about the middle of the germen. 

 Stamens five, on short awl-shaped filaments, about as long as the 

 perianth, inserted into the fleshy ring surrounding the germen. 

 Anthers ovate, of two cells, yellow. Styles tsvo, occasionally three, 

 very short. Fruit kidney-shaped, imbedded in the fleshy capsular 

 base of the calyx. Seed horizontal, covered with a leathery coat, two 

 VOL. I. 3 K 



