CHENOPODIACE.E. (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 405 



tube and a bell-shaped (rose or purple) deciduous limb, plaited in the bud. 

 Stamens mostly 3. Style filiform : stigma capitate. Fruit achenium-like, 

 several-ribbed or angled. — Herbs, abounding on the western plains, with very 

 large and thick perennial roots, opposite leaves, and mostly clustered small flow- 

 ers. (Name 6^vj3d(j)ou, a vinegar-saucer, or small shallow vessel ; from the shape 

 of the involucre.) 



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

 (l°-3° high) ; leaves varying from ovate, or somewhat heart-shaped to lanceo- 

 late : involucres 3 - 5-flowered. — Rocky places, from Wisconsin and Illinois 

 southward and westward. June - Aug. 



Order 84. PHYTOLACCACE.E. (Pokeweed Family.) 



Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect flowers, having the gen end 

 characters q/" Chenopodiaceae, but usually a several-celled ovary composed 

 of as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit ; — repre- 

 sented only by the typical genus 



1. PHYTOLACCA, 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 perennials, 

 with large pctioled leaves, and terminal racemes which become lateral and op- 

 posite the leaves. (Name compounded of (pvrov, plant, and the French lac, 

 lake, in allusion to the crimson coloring matter resembling that pigment which 

 the berries yield.) 



1. P. decandra, L. (Common Poke or Scoke. Garget. Pigeon- 

 Berry.) Stamens 10: styles 10. — Low grounds. 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 (which are in early spring sometimes 

 eaten as a substitute for Asparagus), at length 6° -9° high. Calyx white: 

 ovary green ; the long racemes of dark-purple berries filled with crimson juice, 

 ripe in autumn. 



Order 85. CHENOPODIACEvE. (Goosefoot Family.) 



Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with mostly 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 

 occasionally fewer, and inserted opposite them or on their base ; the 1-celled 

 ovary becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achenium. Embryo coiled 

 into a ring around the mealy albumen, when there is any, or else condupli- 

 cate, or spiral. — Calyx persistent, mostly enclosing the fruit. Styles or 

 stigmas 2, rarely 3-5. (Mostly inert or innocent, weedy plants : several 

 are pot-herbs, such as Spinach and Beet.) 



