87S fHfi GOOSfiFOOT FAMILY. 



leafy panicle. Fruiting perianths of 2 broad, flat segments, distinct 

 nearly from the base, 3 or 4 lines long, quite entire, thin and net- veined, 

 closely clasping the flat vertical seed ; intermixed with them are also 

 several small, regular 5-cleft perianths, half closed over the fruit as in 

 Chtnopodium. Seed horizontal. 



Of east European or west Asiatic origin, but has long been cultivated 



in kitchen-gardens, and was formerly much used as spinach, and has 



established itself as an escape from cultivation in several parts of 



Europe. In Britain, said to be tolerably abundant on the seacoast near 



Byde, in the Isle of Wight. Fl. end of summer and autumn. The Ryde 



specimens are much nearer to the common garden form than to the. 



. east European wild variety often distinguished under the name of A. 



\. nitens, Rebent. 



4. A. patula, Linn. (fig. 856). Common 0. A most variable plant 

 in stature, in the shape of the leaf, and in the fruiting perianth. It is 

 an annual, erect or prostrate, dark or pale green, or more or less mealy- 

 white, but never so thickly frosted or scaly as A. rosea. Leaves all 

 stalked ; the lower ones usually hastate and sometimes opposite ; the 

 upper ones often narrow and entire, or coarsely toothed. Flowers 

 clustered in rather slender spikes, forming narrow, leafy, terminal 

 panicles; the females mixed with the males, or a few in separate 

 axillary clusters. Segments of the fruiting perianth united to about the 

 middle, usually ovate or rhomboidal and pointed, often toothed at the 

 edge and warted or muricate on the back, but very variable in size and 

 shape, often of two kinds, a larger and a smaller, on the same plant. 



On the seacoasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, extending to the Arctic 



regions, besides being very common inland as a weed of cultivation. 



Abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season except early spring. The 



principal forms, which have been distinguished as species, although 



N. they run very much one into another, are the following : 



a. A. hastata, Linn, (deltoidea, Bab., Bdbingtonii, Woods). Erect of 

 spreading. Lower leaves broadly triangular or hastate, often coarsely 

 and irregularly toothed. 



b. A. erecta, Huds. Stem erect. Leaves lanceolate, the lower ones 

 broader and hastate. 



c. A. angustifolia, Sm. Stem spreading or decumbent. Leaves mostly 

 lanceolate or the upper ones linear. 



d. A. littoralis, Linn. Stems prostrate. Leaves still narrower than 

 in the last, often toothed. 



All these vaiieties have maritime forms, with thicker succulent leaves, 

 in some specimens very green and shining, in others more or less mealy- 

 white, especially the variety deltoidea. 



5. A. rosea, Linn. (fig. 857). Frosted 0. Resembles some of the 

 maritime varieties of A. patula t but is much more covered with a white 

 ecaly meal ; the leafstalks are much shorter, the floral leaves almost 

 sessile, and the female perianths are mostly clustered in the axils of the 

 leaves, whilst the male flowers are in rather dense spikes, forming short 

 terminal panicles. Leaves usually broadly triangular or rhomboidal, and 

 coarsely toothed. Fruiting perianths always mealy- white, rather thick, 

 rhomboidal or orbicular, often warted ; the segments united to above 

 the middle, but not so high as in A. portulacoides. A. laciniata, Linn. 

 A. wenaria, Woods. A. Jarinosa, Dumort. 



