A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 99 



Leaves green, oblong or oblong-Iance-shaped, 1-5 in. long, 

 the margins wavy and with a few shallow teeth. Flower 

 clusters mostly among the upper leaves, and shorter than 

 them, in apparently small interrupted heads. Fruits dry. In 

 waste places from Ontario and Maine to Florida and west- 

 ward. Native of tropical America. September. Another aro- 

 matic goosefoot, Chenopodhim Botrys, has deeply toothed 

 leaves and is covered with sticky hairs. Native of Europe and 

 Asia, but occurring widely in North America as a weed in 

 waste places. 



286. Strawberry Elite. Blitum capitatmn. (Chcnopodimn 

 capitatum.) An annual herb 6-20 in. tall, with alternate green 

 odorless leaves, the shape of an arrowhead. Leaves 13^-23/2 

 in. long, coarsely but few-toothed. Flowers greenish-white 

 in heads about 34 ^^- ii^ diameter, arranged in terminal clus- 

 ters or from among the upper leaves. Fruits bright red and 

 strawberry-like, about 3^ in. in diameter. In dry places. Nova 

 Scotia to N. J. and westward. July. Fig. 286. 



287. Leaves without marginal teeth ; wavy margined in some 

 species. (Nos. 288-303.) 



Stems with a small sheath at each leaf insertion 



Buckwheat Family no. 294 



Stems without such sheath. 

 Leaves not over Yz in. wide, usually much less, and pointed . . . 



Pinweeds no. 291 



Leaves over J/2 in. wide Amaranth no. 288 



288. AMARANTH. AMARANTHACEAE. 



Coarse weedy annual herbs with alternate stalked leaves, 

 often colored slightly in age, always without marginal teeth. 

 Flowers greenish or purplish, without i)ctals, in dense ter- 

 minal pointed clusters, or else from among the upper leaves 

 in much smaller clusters, or sometimes both ways. Fruit dry. 

 There are several species of which the following are most 

 common. 



