A T R 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



A T R 



149 



terminate the branches in clustered spikes. It is found wild 

 on the shores of the European ocean, and in salt marshes, 

 flowering in July and August. It may be introduced into 

 plantations among other low shrubs, and if planted on a poor 

 gravelly soil, will abide several years, and make a pretty 

 diversity. For the culture and propagation of it, see the first 

 pecies. 



3. Atriplex Glaura. Stem undershrubby, procumbent ; 

 leaves ovate, sessile, quite entire ; the lower ones subdentate. 

 Stein the thickness of a finger, covered with an ash-coloured 

 bark, and divided into declining branches, three or four feet 

 long, subdividing into other shorter ones. The leaves are . 

 thickish, from silver inclining to glaucous. At each axil of 

 the upper branchlets come out three or four hermaphrodite 

 flowers, with a few females among them, of a yellowish 

 colour. A native of France and Spain. 



4. Atriplex Rosea. Stem herbaceous ; leaves hoary, ser- 

 rated ; fruit quadrangular, toothed. The stem is erect, a foot 

 and half or two feet high, somewhat angular, white, smooth, 

 yery branching ; the branches alternate', subdividing, all dif- 

 fused. Flowers in close sessile balls at the axils. It is an 

 annual plant, native of the southern countries of Europe. 

 For the culture and propagation of it, see the first species. 



5. Atriplex Sibirica; Siberian Orache. Stem herbaceous ; 

 leaves deltoid, angular ; the calices of the fruit muricated on 

 the outside. The leaves are silvery beneath, and the flowers 

 white. An annual plant, and a native of Siberia. 



G. Atriplex Tatarica ; Tartarian Orache. Stem herba- 

 ceous ; leaves deltoid, sinuate-toothed, waved alternate ; 

 item about six feet high. 



7. Atriplex Hortensis ; Garden Orache. Stem erect, her- 

 baceous, three feet high and more, thick, shining ; leaves 

 triangular ; root annual. It is a native of Tartary. There 

 are three or four varieties of this, differing only in the 

 colour of the plants ; one is of a deep green, another of a 

 dark purple, and a third with green leaves and purple bor- 

 ders. It is used of many, says Parkinson, boiled and but- 

 tered, to make the stomach and belly soluble, and is put 

 among other herbs into the pot. to make pottage. There 

 are many dishes of meat made with it while it is young ; for 

 being almost without savour, it is the more convertible into 

 what relish any one will make it, with sugar, spice, &c. It 

 was formerly cultivated in the kitchen-gardens, as a culinary 

 herb, being used as Spinage, and is now by some persons 

 preferred to it, though in general it is not es'teemed among 

 the English ; but the French cultivate this plant for use. The 

 Red Orache is formed to dye wool of a good olive colour. 

 This must be s6wn for use early in the spring, or at Michael- 

 mas, soon after the seeds are ripe, at which time it generally 

 succeeds better than when it is sown in the spring, and will 

 be fit for use at least a month earlier. These plants require 

 no other culture, but to hoe them when they are about 

 an inch high, to cut them down when they are too thick, 

 leaving them about four inches asunder, and also to cut down 

 all the weeds. This must be done in dry weather, otherwise 

 the weeds will take root again, and render the work of little 

 or no use. When the plants are grown about four inches 

 high, it will be proper to hoe them a second time, in order 

 to clear them from weeds ; and if you observe the plants are 

 left too close in any part, they should then be cut out. If 

 this be well performed, and in dry weather, the ground will 

 remain clean until the plant is fit for use. Where it is sown 

 on a rich soil, and the plants are allowed a proper distance 

 the leaves will be very large, and in that the excellence of 

 the herb consists. It must be eaten when young, for when 

 the stalks become tough, it is good for nothing. The seed 



TOL. I. 13. 



will ripen in August, when the plants may be cut or pulled 

 up, and laid on a cloth to dry ; after which the seeds may 

 be beaten out, and laid up in bags for use. 



8. Atriplex Laciniata ; Jagged Sea Orache. Stem herba- 

 ceous ; leaves deltoid, toothed, silvered underneath. The 

 whole plant is covered with a skin that peels off, and is of a 

 gray hoary colour. It is an annual, flowering in July and 

 August,' and is a native of the sea-shores of Europe. 



9. Atriplex Hastata ; Broad-leaved Wild Orache, vulgarly 

 called Fat-hen. Stem herbaceous ; valves of the calix in the 

 female flowers large, deltoid, sinuated ; root annual ; stem 

 generally upright, one to three feet high, four-cornered, of a 

 purplish colour; flowers on the tops of the stalks in narrow 

 reddish spikes. It varies much, according to age and situa- 

 tion ; on dunghills it is very strong and luxuriant ; by road- 

 sides, it is weaker, and its branches are long and procumbent ; 

 in wet places, it becomes more upright, and the leaves are 

 very mealy on the under side, particularly when it grows on 

 the sea-shore ; at other times they are altogether smooth. 

 In its young state, this plant is frequently eaten instead of 

 Spinach. Birds are very fond of the seeds, but cattle do not 

 seem much to like the plant. In gardens, and other culti- 

 vated grounds, it is a very troublesome weed, flowering from 

 June till August : it should not be suffered to grow and seed 

 on dunghills. 



10. Atriplex Patula ; Narrow-leaved Wild, or Spreading 

 Orache. Stem herbaceous, expanding; leaves subdeltoid, 

 lanceolate ; calices of the seeds toothed in the disk ; root 

 fibrous, annual. Native of Europe, in waste places, on ditch- 

 banks, and in cultivated grounds, flowering in August. 



11. Atriplex Littoralis; Grass-leaved Sea Orache. Stem 

 herbaceous, erect ; all the leaves linear, quite entire ; root 

 annual. Native of the sea-coasts of Europe, flowering in 

 August : found at Ramsgate in Kent ; Yarmouth, Blakeney, 

 and Wells, in Norfolk. 



12. Atriplex Pedunculata ; Pedunded Sea Orache. Stem 

 herbaceous, much branched ; branches divaricated ; leaves 

 lanceolate, obtuse, entire ; calices of the female flowers pe- 

 duncled. Native of the sea-shores of Denmark and England; 

 as, near Boston, in the isle of Thanet ; near Yarmouth, 

 Lynn, &c. Annual ; flowering from July till September. 



13. Atriplex Marina ; Serrated Sea Orache. Stem herba- 

 ceous, erect ; leaves linear, serrate. It is an annual plant, 

 native of Sweden and England ; on sea-shores and in waste 

 places, flowering in August. 



14. Atriplex Albicans ; White Orache. Stem shrubby, 

 erect ; leaves hastate, quite entire, acute, spikes terminating. 

 Native of the Cape ; flowering in June and July. 



Atropa; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 five-parted, gibbous ; divisions acute, permanent. Corolla : 

 one-petalled, bell-shaped ; tube very short ; border ventri- 

 cose, ovate, longer than the calix ; mouth small, five-cleft, 

 spreading; divisions subequal. Stamina: filamenta five, 

 subulate from the base of the corolla, and of the same length 

 with it, converging at the base, above diverging outwards, 

 bowed. Antherae thickish, rising. Pistil: germen semi- 

 ovate. Style filiform, the length of the stamina, included. 

 Stigma headed, rising transversely, oblong. Pericarp : berry 

 globular, sitting on a large calix, two- celled. Receptacle: 

 fleshy, convex on both sides, reniform. Seeds : very many, 

 reniform. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla bell-shaped. 

 Stamina distant. Berry globular, two-celled. 



1 . Atropa Mandragora ; Mandrake. Stemless ; 'scapes 

 one-flowered. It has a taper root, like a Parsnep, which 

 runs three or four feet deep in the ground ; it is sometimes 

 2Q 



