356 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



2. BETA Linn. Beet. 



As Chenopodium, except that each flower has 3 small bracts at its base, 

 and that the ovary and seed are immersed in the succulent base of the 

 perianth. 



B. VULGARIS Linn. 



Stem herbaceous, to 50 cm. high, with angled branches. Leaves acute 

 or subobtuse, subsinuate or entire, undulate, glabrous, clear green or 

 purplish ; the lower ovate-oblong, with decurrent petioles ; the upper sub- 

 sessile, oblong. Spikes long, narrow, erect, in a bract-bearing panicle. 

 Glomerules with 2-4 flowers, sessile, pale green, mostly digynous ; fruit- 

 ing calyces, 2-3-coalescent ; their segments at length costate-carinate, 

 apically inflexed. 



Biennial (Mediterr. region, and widely cultivated); not rare near Car- 

 men de Patagones (introduced). 



3. CHENOPODIUM Linn. Goosefoot. 



Leaves alternate, entire, or toothed, or lobed. Flowers bractless, 

 minute, in compound spikes. Calyx green to fleshy, wingless in fruit. 

 Stamens 1-5. Styles 2-3. Embryo annular. 



Species 60, widely distributed. 



4 



KEY TO THE SPECIES., 



A. Perianth herbaceous in fruit, nearly closed. Embryo annular. No glandular hairs (but sac- 



cular hairs). (Sec. Chenopodiastrum?) 

 b. Leaves usually sinuate-dentate, basi-cuneate. Stem erect, sulcate, fruiting calyx keeled 



and closed. album. 



b2. Leaves entire. 



c. Stem slender, terete. Fruiting calyx keeled, not closed. fuegianum. 



c2. Stem branching, striate. Fruiting calyx closed, not keeled. vulvarium. 



A2. Perianth enclosing the fruit. Flowers glomerate, spicate. Embryo curved but not com- 

 pletely annular. Style-base with glandular hairs. (Sec. Ambrina.') 

 b. Leaves subpetiolate, oblong, etc. ambrosioides. 



A$. Perianth persisting after fall of fruit. Flowers in loose subterminal dichasia. Glandular hairs 



on ovary, not on leaves or perianth. (Sec. Botrydium?) 

 b. Stem sulcate. Leaves subpinnatifid. Fruiting calyx not closed nor keeled. 



botrys. 



A^. Flowers glomerular. Perianth herbaceous on the fruit. Embryo incompletely annular. 

 (Sec. Pseudoblitum^) 



b. Leaves oblong to lanceolate. Plants succulent. Seeds minute, rugose, glaucum. 

 b2. Leaves more or less deltoid-ovate. 



