416 CHENOPODiACE^. [Cheiiopodium. 



Under walls, in waste and cultivated ground and rubbishy places, chiefly in 

 suburban situations ; very rare. i^Z. July, August. 0. 



E. Med. — At the foot of a long wall at E. Cowes, rather abundantly. In the 

 garden of" la Solitude," Ryde, but in very small quantity, Dr. BeU-Salter, 1845. 

 Shown me by my friend the Rev. Wm. Darwin Fox, growing in his garden at 

 Binstead, but very sparingly, and he suspected introduced by accident from seed 

 brought by him out of Derbyshire. 



Herb weak and slender, dull grayish green, covered with a granular mealiness. 

 Root small, whitish, tapering, with a few slender fibres. Stems much branched 

 from the very base, from a few inches to a foot or upwards in length, prostrate or 

 ascending at the extremity. Leaves stalked, scarcely an inch long, ovato-rhom- 

 boidal, mostly bluntish, quite entire, 3 ribbed at the base, a little fleshy, covered, 

 like the rest of the plant, with an unctuous mealiness of a most offensive odour, 

 justly compared to that of stale salt fish, and permanently communicable by con- 

 tact. Flowers very small, green, in little roundish crowded clusters, forming 

 short, leafless, axillary and terminal, very mealy spikes. Seeds quite covered by 

 the perianth, round, flattened, dark brown, shining and minutely dotted. 



2. C. polyspermum, L. Allseed Goosefoot. " Leaves ovato- 

 elliptical sessile, spikes axillary elongated subcymose." — Br. Fl. 

 p. 345. E.B.t.U8Q. 



p. acutifolium. Stems partly erect or ascending; leaves ovate; spikes erect, 

 leafy, scarcely branched. C. polyspermum, Curt. C. acutifolium, E. B. t. 1481. 

 ' Leight. Fl. Shrops. p. 121, cum ic. 



A frequent weed in kitchen- and other gaiden-ground, potato- fields, waste 

 places, on ditchbanks, dung-hills, and in moist woods, &c. Fl. July, September. 

 Fr. September. 0. 



E. Med. — Cultivated fields near Ryde, Binstead, and, I understand, a weed in 

 the garden at Pondwell. Common on old manure heaps at Sandown. In gar- 

 dens at Godshill, 1844. Abundant in 1844 at several places, as Godshill, New- 

 church, Shanklin, America. Merston, plentifully, 1843. E. bank of the 

 Medina, below Coppiug's bridge, B. T. W. [Very common at Hillway, Bern- 

 bridge, Dr. Bell- Salter, Edrs.] 



W. Med. — Wood near W. Cowes (Shamblei's copse). Waste ground between 

 Yarmouth and Shalfleet. Garden of the Shanklin (Williams's) hotel. By the 

 lower farm at Ningwood. In Northwood park, sparingly, 1844. 



/3. " The var. acutifolium is the prevailing if not the only form of the plant 

 with us in Hants.''* 



Herb quite glabrous in every part. Root annual, tapering, whitish or reddish, 

 branched, with copious slender fibres. Stem erect, solid, various in height, from 

 a few inches to 1 or 2 feet, green or purple, 4-cornered below, sharply angled, 

 grooved and ridged above, mostly branching from the very base, the branches 

 opposite, subopposite or alternate, simple or again ramified, ascending, spreading 

 or divaricate, the lowermost becoming much elongated and quite prostrate or with 

 their extremities ascending; on dung-hills and in rich ground very widely 

 spreading and luxuriant. Leaves light, sometimes bluish or yellowish green, 

 often edged with purple or suffused with that colour, on the disk and ribs under- 

 neath, somewhat lucidf but not shining, a little fleshy, pale and whitish beneath, 

 strongly depresso-venose and wavy, with a minute mucronate point ; extremely 

 variable in size and shape on the same plant, with us for the most part ovate or 

 from that to ovato-lanceolate, rounded, attenuated or rhomboidal at base ; for the 



* [ Bromf. in Phytol. iii. p. 749. It is evident therefore that the stations in 

 the text above must refer mainly if not exclusively to this form. — Edr$!] 



f By lucid is here meant a certain transparency or brightness of appearance in 

 the leaves by the partial transmission of light through them. 



