PHTTOLACCACE^i. (POKEWKED FAMILY.) 361 



1. OX^BAPHUS, Vahl. OXVBAPHUS. 



Flowers 1 - 5 in the same 5-lobed membranaceous broad and open involucre, 

 which enlarges, and is thin and reticulated in fruit. Calyx with a very short 

 tube and a bell-shaptd (rose or purple) deciduous limb, which is plaited in 

 the bud. Stamens mostly 3. Style filiform : stigma capitate. Fruit achenium- 

 like, several-ribbed or angled. Herbs, with very large and thick perennial 

 roots, opposite leaves, and mostly clustered small flowers. (Name o^vficKpov, 

 a vinegar-saucer, or small shallow vessel ; from the shape of the involucre.) 



1. O. nyctagincus, Sweet. Nearly smooth; stem repeatedly forked 

 (l-3 high) ; leaves oblong-ovate, triangular-ovate, or somewhat heart-shaped ; 

 involucres 3-5-flowered. Rocky places, from Wisconsin and Illinois south- 

 ward and westward. June -Aug. 



ORDER 89. PHYTOLACCACE^E. (POKEWEED FAMILY.) 



Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect flowers, with nearly the 

 characters of Chenopodiaeea3, but usually a several-celled ovary composed of 

 as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit ; represent- 

 ed only by the typical genus 



1. PHYTOLACCA, Tourn. POKEWEED. 



Calyx of 5 rounded and petal -like sepals. Stamens 5-30. Ovary of 5-12 

 carpels, united in a ring, with as many short separate styles, in fruit forming a 

 depressed-globose 5-12-cclled berry with a single vertical seed in each cell. 

 Embryo curved in a ring around the albumen. Tall and stout perennial herbs, 

 with large petioled leaves, and flowers in racemes which become lateral and op- 

 posite the leaves. (Name compounded of (frvrov, plant, and the French lac, lake, 

 in allusion to the coloring matter resembling that pigment which the berries 

 yield.) 



1. P. decJlifidra,, L. (COMMON POKE or SCORE. GARGET. PKJEON- 

 BERRV.) Stamens 10: styles 10. Borders of woods and moist ground; com- 

 mon. July- Sept. A smooth plant, with a rather unpleasant odor, and a very 

 large poisonous root often 4' -6' in diameter, sending up stout stalks (in early 

 spring sometimes eaten as a substitute for Asparagus), which are at length 6- 

 9 high. Calyx white : ovary green ; the long racemes of dark-purple berries 

 filled with crimson juice, ripe in autumn. 



ORDER 90. CHENOPODIACE7E. (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 



Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with chiefly alter- 

 nate leaves, and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish floweis, 

 with the free calyx imbricated in the bud; the stamens as many as its lobes, or 

 rarely fewer, and inserted, opposite them or on their base; the 1 -celled ovary 

 becoming a l-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achenium in fruit. Embryo 



