184 COMMON CANADIAN WILD PLANTS. 



ORDER LXXVI. CHENOPODIA'CE^E. (GOOSEFOOT F.) 



Homely herbs, with more or less succulent leaves (chiefly 

 alternate), and small greenish flowers mostly in interrupted 

 spikes. Stamens usually as many as the lobes of the calyx 

 and opposite them. Ovary 1-celled and 1-ovuled, forming 

 an achene or utricle in fruit. Stigmas mostly 2. 



Synopsis of i lie Genera. 



1. Clienopo'dium. Weeds with (usually) mealy leaves, and very small 



perfect greenish sessile flowers in small panicled spiked clusters. 

 Calyx 5-cleft, more or less enveloping the fruit, and sometimes be- 

 coming fleshy and berry-like. Stamens mostly 5, filaments 

 slender. 



2. Monol'epis. A low annual, glabrous or somewhat mealy, with small 



fleshy leaves. Sepal only 1, bract-like. Stamen 1. Styles 2. Seed 

 vertical, flattened. N. W. prairies only. 



3. Cyclolo'nia. A much-branched coarse herb, with very small scat- 



tered sessile flowers in open panicles. Flowers perfect or pistillate. 

 Calyx 5-cleft, the concave lobes strongly keeled, at length with a 

 broad and continuous horizontal wing. Stamens 5; styles 3. 

 Seed horizontal, flat. 



4. At/riplex. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, the staminate with a 



regular calyx, in spiked clusters ; the pistillate without a calyx, 

 but with a pair of appressed bracts. 



5. Cori.sper'mum. Flowers all perfect, single, and sessile in the axils 



of the upper leaves, usually forming a spike. Calyx of a single 

 delicate sepal. Low herbs, with linear 1-nerved leaves 



6. Salieor ilia. Low saline plants with fleshy leafless jointed stems 



and opposite branches. Flowers perfect, densely spiked, 3 together 

 sunk in each hollow of the fleshy axis of the spike. Calyx small 

 and bladder-like, with a toothed or torn margin, at length spongy 

 and narrowly wing-bordered. Stamens 1 or 2. Styles 2, united at 

 the base. 



7. Sinrda. Fleshy saline plants, with alternate terete linear leaves. 



Flowers perfect, sessile in the axils of leafy bracts. Calyx 5- 

 parted, very fleshy. Stamens 5, the anthers exserted. Stigmas 

 2 or 3. Seed horizontal. 



8. Sal sola. A diffusely branching annual, with alternate awl-shaped 



prickly -pointed leaves. Flowers perfect, sessile, with 2 bractlets. 

 Calyx 5-parted, persistent, its divisions at length horizontally 

 winged on the back. Seed horizontal. 



