4G4 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDERS. 



by the common Poke (Phytolacca decandra), which has a compound 

 ovary of ten confluent (one-seeded) carpels, the short styles or stig- 

 mas distinct; the fruit a berry. The root is acrid and emetic: yet 

 the young shoots in the spring are used as a substitute for Aspara- 

 gus. The berries yield a copious deep-crimson juice. 



894. Ol'll. CasellacCX ; a small subtropical group of climbing suc- 

 culent plants, allied to the last and the next two orders, from which 

 it differs by the decidedly perigynous stamens and double petaloid 

 calyx. The ovary is single and one-ovulcd. — Ex. Basella, Pous- 

 singaultia of South America ; the latter cultivated for ornament (from 

 potato-like tubers) under the name of Madeira Vine. Some are pot- 

 herbs. 



89o. Ord. Clienopodiaceoc (Goosefoot Family). Chiefly weedy 

 herbs, with alternate or opposite and more or less succulent leaves, 



and small herbaceous flowers. Calyx sometimes tubular at the 

 base, persistent ; the stamens as many as its lobes, or fewer, and in- 

 serted at their base. Ovary free, one-celled, with a single ovule 

 arising from its base. Fruit a utricle (Fig. 574) or achenium. 

 I^mbryo curved or coiled around the outside of mealy albumen, or 

 spiral without any albumen (in Salsola, &c). — Ex. Chenopodium, 

 Atriplex, Peta (the Peet), &c. Sea-side plants, or common uejds : 



JTG. 1095 Part of the spike of Salicornia herbacea: the flowers placed three together In 

 excavations of the stem, protected by a fleshy scale 1093 Separate flower. 1097 A flower 

 of Blitum, with its I'eshy cal) x and single stamen 109S Same, more enlarged, with the thick- 

 ened juicy calyx (1099) removed 1100. The ripe fruit 1101. Same, divided vertically, show- 

 ing the embrjo coiled around the central albumen. 1102. Flower of Chenopodium album 

 (common Goosefoot). 1103 Section of the same, more enlarged 1104 Section of t!ie utiiclo 

 and seed, showing the embryo 1105. Calyx of Salsola kali (Saltwort), in fruit, with its wing- 

 like border 1106. Section of the same, briuging the ovary into viuw. 1107. The spirally 

 coiled embryo of Chenopodina maritima. 



