44 CHENOPODIACE.E. 



(becoming appendaged, winged, baccate, etc.), or sometimes wanting in tlie fertile 

 fiowers ; stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them or fewer, distinct, with 

 2-celled anthers ; ovary 1-celled, containing a solitary amphitropous or campylo- 

 tropous ovule on a funicle rising from its base, an akene or utricular in fruit ; 

 embryo slender, either annular, and surrounding the mealy albumen, or spiral with 

 the albumen lateral or wanting. Flowers either perfect or unisexual. Bracts often 

 enclosing the fruit. Sepals imbricated in the bud. Styles or stigmas 1 to 4. 

 — Moquin in DC. Prodr. xiiil 41. Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 82. 



A wide-spread order of about 60 genera and 400 species, mostly extra-tropical and in large 

 degree peculiar to maritime or saline localities, and including some cosmofiolitan weeds. It is 

 extensively represented in the desert and alkaline regions of Western America (most of the vari- 

 ous plants that are popularly known as " Grease Wood " belonging to it), as in Asia and the Medi- 

 terranean region, it furnishes the Beat (Beta vii/guris, Linn.), which has been cultivated for 

 ages, and the Mangel Wurzel (B. Cicla, Linn.) ; several species, as Spinach {Spinacia oleracca, 

 Linn.) and the Garden Orach {Atriplex Jwrtcnsis, Linn.), are used as potherbs ; and the seeds of 

 others are used for food by the Indians of North and South America. Some possess aromatic and 

 medicinal properties, and others contain large quantities of alkaline salts. 



Tkibe I. CHENOPODIE^. Flowers perfect, without bracts ; the perianth persistent. Seed 

 free, mostly with crustaceous testa and copious albumen. Embryo annular. Stems not 

 articulated, nor leaves terete except in Kochia. 



* Seeds horizontal (sometimes vertical in Chcnopodium). 



1. Kochia. Perianth 5-cleft, at length transversely winged, enclosing the fruit. Stamens 5. 



Testa membranous and albumen none. Perennial, with terete leaves and axillary 

 Howers. 



2. Aphaiiisma. Perianth 3-cleft, not appendaged, persistent at the base of the fruit. Sta- 



men 1. Glabrous annual, with ovate entire leaves, and minute axillary flowers. 



3. Teloxys. Perianth of 5 carinate sepals, partly covering the fruit. Stamen 1 or none. An- 



nual, repeatedly dichotomous, with lanceolate toothed leaves, and axillary or terminal 

 solitary Howers. 



4. Chenopodium. Perianth usually 5-cleft or -parted, nearly covering the fruit. Stamens 5 or 



fewer. Mostly mealy or glandular, with the clustered flowers axillary or in axillary and 

 terminal spikes. Seed in some species often vertical. 



* + Seeds vertical. 



5. Monolepis. Sepal 1, bract-like. Stamen 1. Fruit naked. Low annuals ; flowers densely 



clustered in the axils. 



6. Roubieva. Perianth 3-5-toothed, becoming saccate and enclosing the fruit. Perennial 



herb, with pinnatifid leaves ; flowers solitary or few in the axils. 



Tribe II. ATRIPLICEiE. Flowers moneecious or dicecious ; the staminate with 3 - S-cleft 

 perianth ; the pistillate without perianth, enclosed in a pair of more or less united bracts. 

 Seed free, vertical, with annular embryo and copious albumen. Stems not articulated nor 

 leaves fleshy. 



* Bracts compressed : testa mostly coriaceous. 



7. Atriplex. Fruiting bracts with margins often dilated and sides often muricate. Eadicle 



from inferior to superior. 



* * Bracts obconipressed, completely united, not muricate : testa membranous : radicle inferior. 



8. Eurotia. Pericarji conical, somewhat obcompressed, densely hairy, not winged. Low and 



shrubby, white-tomentose. 



9. Grayia. Pericarp flattened, orbicular, wing-margined, glabrous. Shrubby, somewhat spines- 



cent, nearly glabrous. 



Tribe III. CORISPERMEJ:. Flowers perfect, bractless. Sepals 1 to ^, hyaline, marces- 

 cent. Pericarp adherent to the vertical seed. Embryo annular around copious albumen. 

 Stems not articulated nor leaves fleshy. 



10. Corispermum. Fruit compressed-elliptic, acutely margined, not muricate : flowers soli- 



taiy, axillary. Low annual. 



