GOOSE-FOOT FAMILY 40g 



6. Su.-EDA. — Leaves semicylindric ; flowers perfect; perianllt- 

 segmeuts not keeled or winged. 



7. Salsola, — Leaves awl-shaped; flowers perfect; perianth- 

 segments developing a broad, transverse, dorsal wing. 



I. Chexopodium (Goose foot). — Very variable and therefore 

 difficult plants ; stem angular ; leaves flat, often triangular, entire 

 or lobed : flowers minute, perfect, in axillary or panicled clusters ; 

 perianth deeply 3 — 5-cleft, remaining unaltered, closing over the 

 fruit ; stamens 2 — 5 ; stigmas 2 — 3. (Name from the Greek 

 dien, a goose, pons, a foot.) 



* Leaves undivided : flowers ^-merous 



1. C. polys per mum (Many-seeded Goose-foot). — A glabrous 

 species, varying in size from 4 to iS in. high, usually tinged "with 

 red ; stem branched, spreading ; leaves nearly sessile, ovate- 

 elliptic ; flowers in branched, slender spikes ; seeds flattened 

 horizontally, shining, minutely doited. — ^^'aste ground; not 

 common. A not inelegant plant, the numerous fruits not being 

 concealed by the perianths. Fl. August — Oitober. Annual. 



2. C. Vulvdria (Stinking Goose-foot). — Distinguished by the 

 extremely disgusting fishy smell of the greasy meal with which the 

 plant is covered ; stem spreading ; leaves ovate-rhomboid, fleshy ; 

 flowers in small, dense spikes. — Waste places ; not common. — 

 Fl. August, September. Annual. 



** Leaves toothed or lobed : flowers ^-merous 



3. C. album (Fat Hen, 'White Goose-foot).; — Perhaps the com- 

 monest species of the genus, i — 3 feet high, succulent, and 

 covered with a white meal : leaves ovate-rhomboid, bluntly 

 toothed, upper ones narrow, entire : flowers _ip branched, dense, 

 clustering spikes, leafy below. — \\'aste places and cultivated 

 ground ; very common. — Fl. July — September. Annual. 



4.* C. opidifolium (Guelder-rose-leaved Goose-foot). — A species 

 which is not indigenous, with rounded, obtuse, dentate leaves ; 

 leafless clusters oi flowers ; and large, smooth, shining seeds. 



5. C. serotinum (Fig-leaved Goose-foot). — An erect, mealy 

 plant, with limp, oblong-hastate, cuneate, toothed leaves, and 

 flowers in a spike, with erect branches, leafy^-at the base only. — 

 Cultivated ground in the east of England*; rare.— Fl. August, 

 September. Annual. 



6, C- murdle (Sowbane, Nettle-leaved Goose-foot). — A nearly 

 "labrous, fetid species, with rhomboid-O'.ate, unequally serrate 



