250 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



CHENOPODIACE^ 



A large family of inconspicuous greenish herbs, widely distributed 

 many species are Maritime and none truly Alpine. 



Chenopodium L. Goosefoot. 

 Flowers small, bisexual, without bracts. Stem angular. Seed- 

 vessel a membranous article, often enclosed in the persistent calyx. 

 Weeds either glabrous or covered with a mealy dust. Widely 

 distributed over the globe. 



Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus L. Good King Henry. 



Stock perennial, with thick, fleshy root Uke that of a Dock. 

 Stems about a foot high. Leaves like those of Spinage, broadly tri- 

 angular, stalked, sinuate or with a few large teeth, thick and dark 

 green ; upper leaves smaller and nearly sessile. Flowers numerous, 

 in clustered spikes, forming a terminal panicle, leafy at the base. 



Waste ground, near villages and mountain chalets, often at 

 considerable elevations in the Alps. May to July. 



Distribution. — Europe and Russian Asia except the extreme 

 north. British. 



Other species of Chenopodium and also of Atriplex are often seen 

 in cultivated and waste land about Alpine villages. 



POLYGONACE^ 



Herbs with simple leaves and scarious, sheathing stipules 

 (ochreae). Flowers usually bisexual. Sepals 3-6, petaloid or green, 

 often in 2 rows. Stamens 5-8. Ovary usually trigonous. Styles 

 1-3. Ovule solitary. Fruit hard, indehiscent, enclosed in the 

 persistent perianth. 



A considerable family, dispersed over the whole globe. 



RuMEX L. Dock. 

 Flowers unisexual or bisexual, in racemes or panicled whorls. 

 Sepals 6, in two rows, the inner ones enlarged in fruit. Stamens 6. 

 A rather large genus spread over the greater part of the world. 



Rumex alpinus L. Monk's Rhubarb. 



This is the Dock so often seen in the neighbourhood of herds- 

 men's huts in Alpine pastures, sometimes up to nearly 8000 feet. 

 The young stems when stewed afford a not unpleasant dish, re- 

 sembling Rhubarb. The stems are 1-2 feet high, branched, glabrous 

 Uke the whole plant. Leaves undulate, crenate, or entire, the 

 lower ones cordate-orbicular or cordate-ovate, obtuse ; higher ones 

 ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, the uppermost lanceolate. Flowers 

 in pseudo-verticillate, leafless, crowded racemes. The 3 inner valves 



