INCOMPLET/E 



261 



Stamens 



acterlstic mark of the family. The genus Amarantus 

 is mostly anemophilous. 



Nat. Order 3. Chenopodiacece. — Herbs or shrubs, 

 sometimes fleshy. Leaves usually alternate, entire, 

 membranous or fleshy. Flowers small, almost al- 

 ways green, hermaphrodite or unisexual. Perianth 

 simple, inferior, sepaloid, of 3 to 5 segments, 

 usually 5, opposite the perianth lobes. 

 ■^ Carpels connate in 



a superior 1 - celled 

 ov?iry, often enclosed 

 in the perianth base. 

 Fruit a small membra- 

 nous utricle or berry, 

 generally enclosed in 

 the perianth base. 

 Seeds erect, some- 

 times albuminous. 



Natives of all cli- 

 mates, in soils con- 

 taining large amount 

 of salt. Common 

 plants : puin (Basella 

 rubra), a much- 

 branched, twining, 

 fleshy herb, cultivated as a vegetable; palang^-shag 

 or Spinach (Spinacia oleracea), a succulent, erect, 

 dioecious herb with a fusiform root, cultivated every- 

 where as a vegetable ; beet-palang or Sugar-beet {Beta 

 vulgaris), a herb with a large, napiform, red-coloured 

 root, cultivated as a vegetable in this country and as 

 a sugar-yielding crop in Europe; beto-shag (Cheiio- 

 podium album) (fig. 228), a tall herb, also commonly 

 cultivated; Atriplex hortensis, a cultivated herb; 

 jadu-palang {Arthrocnemum indicum) (fig. 229), a 



Fig. 328.— Beto-shag 

 {Chenopodiutn album) 



- Jadu- 

 palang- (Arihivnte^ 

 tnttin tndicum) 



py Perianth, enclos- 

 ing fruit. 



