284 GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 



92. PHYT0LACCACE.S1, POKEWEED FAMILY. 



A small family, represented here only by a single species of the 

 principal genus, 



1. PHYTOLACCA, POKE or POKEWEED. (A mongrel name, of 

 the Greek word for plant prefixed to the French lac, lake, alluding to the 

 crimson coloring-matter of the berries.) Calyx of 5 rounded petal-like white 

 sepals. Stamens 5 - 30. Ovary of several cellf and lobes, bearing as many 

 short styles, in fruit a depressed juicy berry, containing a ring of vertical 

 seeds ; these formed on the plan of those of the next family, y, 



P. dec^ndra. Common P. or Sooke, Garget, &c. Coarse smooth 

 weed of low grounds, with large acrid-poisonous root, stout stems 6' - 9' high, 

 alternate ovate-oblong leaves on long petioles, and racemes becoming lateral 

 opposite a leaf, in summer, ripening the dark crimson purple berries in autumn ; 

 stamens, styles, and seeds 10. 



93. CHENOPODIACE.ffi, GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 



Represented chiefly by homely herbs, with inconspicuous green- 

 ish flowers ; the 1-celled ovary has a single ovule and ripens into 

 an akene or utricle, containing a single seed, usually with embryo 

 coiled more or less around mealy albumen. Leaves chiefly alter- 

 nate. Plants neither attractive nor easy to students ; only the 

 cultivated plants and commonest weeds here given. 



^ 1. Cultivated for ornament, twining plant, with white flowers ; calyx corolla-Uke. 



1. BOUSSINGAULTIA. Flowers in slender spikes from the axils of the leaves, 



perfect. Calyx 6-parted, spreading, and with one or two exterior sepals or 

 bracts. Stamens 6, with slender filaments. Style slender: stigmas 3, club- 

 shaped. Fruit a thin akene, pointed with the persistent style. 



§ 2. CuUivaied for food^ from Eu.: flowers greenish, as is usual in the family. 



2. BETA. Flowers perfect, clustered, with 3 bracts and a 5-cleft calyx becoming 



indurated in fruit, enclosing the hard akene, the bases of the two coherent. 

 Stamens 5. Style short: stigmas mostly 2. Seed horizontal. 



3. SPINACIA. Flowers dioecious, in axillary close clusters ; the staminate ones 



racemed or spiked, consisting of a 4 - 5-lobed calyx and as many stamens. 

 Pistillate flowers with a tubular calyx which is 2-3-toothed at the apex and 

 2-.3-homed on the sides, hardening and enclosing the akene. Styles 4. 

 Seed vertical. 



§ 3. Weeds of cullivaiion, or of roadsides, fields, <^c. Flowers perfect, bracUess. 



i. BLITUM. Flowers in close axillary clusters or heads, which are sometimes 

 confluent into interrupted spikes. Calyx 2-5-parted, becoming fleshy or 

 ben-y-like in fi-uit in the genuine species. Stamens 1-6. Styles or stigmas 

 2. Seed vertical in the calyx. 



6. CHENOPODIUM. Flowers in smaU clusters collected in spiked or sometimes 

 open panicles. Calyx mostly 5-cleft, not succulent in finiit. Ovary and 

 utricle depressed. (Lessons, p. 130, fig. 297.) Styles 2, rarely 3. Seed 

 horizontal, or in a few species occasionally vertical. 



The following also are common species along the coast or near salt-water : — 



Atriplex pdtula, and one or two other species of Orache : most like 

 Spinacia, but scurfy or mealy. 



Salic6rnia herbaeea, and two other species of Glasswoet : low, leaf- 

 less, fleshy, jointed, branching plants, with the flowers sunken in the fleshy 

 spikes. 



Suaeda marltima. Sea Elite : with branching stems, and small flowers 

 in the axils of linear nearly terete fleshy leaves. 



S&lsola EW, Saltwort : bushy-branching annual, with awl-shaped 



