118 



CHENOPODIACEAE. 



1. Salicornia perennis Mill. 

 Woody Glasswort. Marsh Sam- 

 phire. (Fig. 137.) Perennial by 

 a woody rootstock; stem trailing 

 or decumbent, the branches as- 

 cending or erect, slender, nearly 

 or quite simple, rather long- 

 jointed, 6'-li° high. Scales 

 broadly ovate or wider than high, 

 appressed or slightly divergent ; 

 fruiting spikes ^'-IV long, their 

 joints not longer than thick; 

 flowers all about equally high and 

 about equalling the joints. [S. 

 ambigua Michx. j S. fruticosa of 

 Lefroy, H. B. Small, Coulter, 

 and Verrill.] 



Common In salt marshes, and 

 on coastal rocks and sands. Native. 

 Atlantic and Pacific coast of North 

 America, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, 

 coasts of northern Europe. Trans- 

 ported to Bermuda by floating. 

 Flowers in spring and summer. 



Beta vulgaris L., Beet, 

 European, a large-rooted plant 

 of this family, is successfully 

 grown as a garden vegetable in 

 s everal races. The flowering stem 

 is 2°-3° high, with alternate 

 leaves, the small greenish flowers 

 in panicled spikes. 



Family 2. BASELLACEAE Moq. 



Madeira-vine Family. 



Somewhat succulent vines, with tuber-bearing rootstocks. Leaves 

 alternate, broad, often cordate, entire. Flowers perfect in narrow racemes. 

 Calyx of 2 sepals, sometimes winged in fruit. Corolla of 5 petals. Stamens 

 5, borne opposite the petals; filaments sometimes united below. Ovary 

 superior, 1-celled ; styles 3, distinct ; stigmas entire or cleft. Ovule solitary, 

 campylotropous, erect. Fruit utricular. Seed with a membranous testa. 

 Five genera and about 15 species of tropical distribution, mostly Amer- 

 ican. 



1. BOUSSINGAULTIA H.B.K. 



Vines, with much-branched stems, the leaves rather fleshy. Flowers in 

 axillary and terminal spike-like racemes. Sepals nearly flat, not winged. 

 Petals longer than the sepals. Filaments terete, somewhat enlarged, but not 

 dilated, at the base. Stigmas cleft. Seeds with starchy endosperm. [In 

 honor of Boussingault, a French botanist.] About a dozen species, natives of 

 tropical America, the following typical. 



