48 CHENOPODIACE^E. Chenopodium. 



* * Flower-clusters all axillary : seeds mostly vertical, acutely margined. 



7. C. carinatum, R. Brown. Stems prostrate or procumbent, a half to a foot 

 long or more, leafy : leaves oblong-lanceolate, sinuately pinnatifid, an inch long or 

 often much less, on slender petioles : flowers small, in rather loose clusters in all the 

 axils : sepals incurved, linear-oblong, somewhat thickened on the back : stamen 

 usually solitary : seed a fourth of a line broad. Benth. Fl. Austral, v. 102. Bli- 

 tum carinatum & B. glandidosum, Moquin, DC. Prodr. xiii 2 . 81. 



An Australian species, found in yards and fields in Plumas County (Lemmon, Mrs. Ames) ; 

 doubtless introduced. 



3. Perennial, somewhat mealy, not glandular-pubescent fruiting calyx dry : 

 seed large, subglobose, vertical, exserted: embryo annular. AGATHOPHYTON. 

 (Blitum AyatTiopliyton, Moquin.) 



8. C. Californicum, Watson. Stout, erect, mostly simple, a foot or two high, 

 from a thick fusiform root : leaves broadly triangular-hastate, 2 or 3 inches long, 

 acute or acuminate, truncate or sinused at base, sharply and unequally sinuate-den- 

 tate : flowers in dense clusters in simple terminal spikes : perianth campunulate, 

 more or less deeply 5-toothed, loosely enveloping the fruit : pericarp persistent : 

 seed somewhat compressed, | to 1 line broad. C. anthelminticum, var. (?) hastatum, 

 Moquin, 1. c. 74. Blitum Bonus-Henricus, var. erosum, Moquin, 1. c. 85. Blitum 

 Bonus-IIenricus, Torrey, Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 129. Blitum Californicum, Watson, 

 Rev. Chenop. 101. 



From the Sacramento to Fort Tejon and San Diego ; known in the southern part of the State 

 as "Soap-plant," and used for cleansing purposes. It much resembles the European species, 

 C. Bonus- Henrwus, Linn., formerly often cultivated as a potherb. 



4. Annual, glabrous calyx becoming more or less fleshy in fruit and often 

 colored : seed subglobose, mostly vertical, small : flowers in crowded clusters, 

 axillary or in spikes BLITUM. 



9. C. mbrum, Linn. Stout, erect, branching, 1 to 3 feet high : leaves triangu- 

 lar-hastate to lanceolate, 2 or 3 inches long, acute, cuneate at base, sparingly sin- 

 uate-dentate, the upper narrowly lanceolate and entire : flower-clusters densely 

 spicate upon the leafy branchlets : sepals 2 to 5, obtuse, rather fleshy : stamens 1 or 

 2, or 5 in the terminal flowers : perianth deciduous : seed occasionally horizontal, 

 the margin obtuse or acutish, a third of a line broad. Blitum maritimum, Nutt. ; 

 Gray, Manual, 408. B. polymorphum, C. A. Meyer ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 288. 

 B. rubrum, Reichenb. ; Watson, Rev. Chenop. 99. 



Var. humile. Smaller, prostrate or ascending : leaves ovate to lanceolate, often 

 hastate, an inch long or less, rarely toothed : flowers in axillary or somewhat spicate 

 clusters. C. humile, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 127. Blitum rubrum, var. humile, 

 Moquin, 1. c. 



In saline or alkaline soils through the interior and eastward, and in British America ; Klamath 

 Lake (Newberry) ; San Diego desert, Palmer. A variable species, common also in Europe and 

 Northern Asia; ambiguous between Chenopodium proper and the typical Blitum. 



10. C. capitatum. A similar species, with leaves usually more broadly trian- 

 gular, often somewhat hastate, more acutely sinuate-toothed : flower-clusters mostly 

 large, in interrupted terminal naked spikes and solitary in the axils of the upper 

 leaves : calyx becoming fleshy in fruit, and the clusters red and berry-like : seed 

 somewhat acutely margined, the pericarp adherent. Blitum capitatum, Linn. ; 

 Moquin, 1. c. 83; Watson, Rev. Chenop. 100. 



In the mountains from Washington Territory to the Saskatchewan and southward to Utah and 

 New Mexico, also east along the Great Lakes ; Sierra County (Lemmori) ; apparently identical 

 with the plant of Central Europe and Siberia. The pulpy bright red calyx gives to the large clus- 

 ters when ripe the appearance of strawberries, whence the popular name " Strawberry Elite." 



