CHENOPODIACF.^. (gOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 405 



tube and a bell-shaped (rose or purple) deciduous limb, plaited in the bud. 

 Stamens mostly 3. Style filitbnn : stijiina ca])itate. Fruit aclienium-like, 

 several-ribbed or angled. — Herbs, abounding on the western ])lains, with very 

 large and thick perennial roots, opposite leaves, and mostly clustered small flow- 

 ers. (Name o^v(iu(jiov, a vimiiar-saucer, or small shallow vessel ; from the shape 

 of the involucre.) 



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

 (l°-3° high) ; leaves varying from ovate, or somewhat heart-sliaped to lanceo- 

 late ; involucres 3-.')-flowered. — Rocky places, from Wisconsin and Illinois 

 southward and westward. June- Aug. 



Order 84. PIIYTOLACCACE.*:. (Pokeweed Family.) 



Plants with alternate, entire leaves and perfect flowers, having the general 

 c^aracto'S o/Chenopo(liace£e, 6u< usuallij a several-celled ovary composed 

 of as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit; — repre- 

 sented 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 sepiirate styles, in fruit forming a 

 deprcKsed-globose 5-12-cciled berry, with a single vertical seed in each cell. 

 Embryo curved in a ring around the albumen. — Tall and stout perennials, 

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

 posite the leaves. (Name compounded of (pvTuv, pl<int. and the French Inc, 

 lake, in allusion to the crimson coloring matter resembling that pigment which 

 the berries yield.) 



1. P. decandra, L. (Common Poke or Scoke. Garget. Pigeox- 

 Berry.) Stamens 10: styles 10. — Low grounds. July -Sept. — A smooth 

 1-lant, with a rather unpleasant odor, and a very large poisonous root, often 

 4'-C' in diameter, sending up stout stalks (which are in early spring sometimes 

 eaten as a substitute for Asparagus), at length 6°-9° high. Calyx white: 

 ovary green ; the long racemes of dark-purple berries filled with crimson juice, 

 ripe in autumn. 



Order 85. CHElVOPODIACEiE. (Goosefoot Family.) 



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

 nate leaves, and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish flowers, vulh 

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

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

 ovary becoming a l-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achenium. Embryo coiled 

 into a ring around the mraly albumen, tvhen there is any, or else condupli- 

 ca'Cs or spiral. — Calyx persistent, mostly enclosing llie fruit. Styles or 

 stiijmas 2, rarely 3-5. (Mostly inert or innocent, weedy plants: several 

 aie ])ot-herbs, such as Spinach and Beet.) 



