GROUP IV. PHAXEROGAMIA : DICOTYLEDOXES : MOXOCHLAMYDEJ]. 587 



This cohort is sometimes placed, though apparently without sufficient reason, 

 in the sub-class Thalaminorae close to the Garyophyllacese, with which order it 

 is, however, connected by the Phytolaccacese. 



> 



Order 1. CHENOPODIACEJE. Flowers small, united to form a 



dense inflorescence : the bracteoles are frequently suppressed._ 

 Stamens typically equal in number to and superposed on the 

 usually four (2 4 2) or five (f ) free or connate sepaloid perianth- 

 leaves for the same reason as in the Urticales (p. 576) (Fig. 392). 

 Ovary usually medially dimerous and unilocular, with a single 

 campylotropous, erect or horizontal, basal ovule. Stipules 

 wanting. 



Ghenopodinm album, the Goose-foot, and C. Bonus Henricns, the All-good, 

 are common weeds on garden-ground and waste land. Spinacia oleracea is 

 Spinach, cultivated as a vegetable. Beta vulgaris is cultivated under the var. 

 Cicla (Mangold) ; B. altissima is the species used in the manufacture of sugar, 

 and B. rubia is the red Beetroot ; B. maritima is the wild Beet. Salsola, the 

 Salt-wort, and its allies, Suaeda, the Sea-blite, and Salicornia, the Marsh- 

 Samphire or Glass-wort, with fleshy stems and leaves, are conspicuous in the 

 vegetation of the sea-shore. Atriplex, the Orache, is the other British genus. 



V Order 2. AMARANTACEJJ. The flowers have the same structure 

 as those of the preceding family : they usually have bracteoles 

 which are frequently petaloid : perianth sometimes petaloid : ovary 

 unilocular, apparently di- or tri-merous : ovule solitary and basal, 

 but in some cases (Celosia) the ovules are numerous. Stipules 

 absent. The flowers usually form dense inflorescences. 



Species of Amarantus and Celosia (Cock's-comb), the latter having a mon- 

 strous floral axis, are well known as ornamental plants. Aiiiarautus Blituni is 

 found wild in Britain. 



Order 3. PHYTOLACCACEJI. The flowers have a simple, gener- 

 ally 5-leaved, perianth which is often peta- 

 loid, and there are frequently two regularly 

 alternating whorls of stamens ; when there 

 is but one whorl of stamens they are some- 

 times superposed on the perianth -leaves 

 (Microtea) ; the number of the stamens in 

 one or both whorls is in many cases doubled 

 (Fig. 393) : the number of carpels varies 



FIG. 393. Diagram of the 



very much ; when the ovary is polymerous flower of Phytolacca decan- 



it is multilocular, each loculus contain- dra - 



ing a single ascending ovule. Stipules occasionally present. 



