PHYTOLACCACK/E. (POKEWEED FAMILY.) 361 



1. OX^BAPHUS, Vahl. OXYBAPHUS. 



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-shaped (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 ov/3d<oi/, 

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



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

 (1 - 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. PHYTOI^ACCACE^E. (POKEWEED FAMILY.) 



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

 characters of Chenopodiacea3, 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. PHYTOL.ACCA, 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-celled 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 <f>vrov, plant, and the French lac, lake, 

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

 yield.) 



1. P. decaiidra, L. (COMMON POKE or SCOKE. GARGET. PIGEON- 

 BERRY.) 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. CHENOPODIACH^E. (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 



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

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

 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 l-celled ovary 

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



