420 CHENOPODiACEiE. [Chenopodium. 



7. C. ruhrum, L. Red Ooosefoot. Iieaves triangular some- 

 what rhomboidal deeply toothed and sinuate, spikes erect com- 

 pound leafy, their clusters crowded, seed very minute vertical 

 smooth loosely coated. Sm. E. Fl. ii. p. 11. Br. Fl. p. 346. 

 Lmd. Sijii. p. 215. E. B. xxiv. t. 1721. 



In low moist manured or muddy places, farm-yards, on dung-heaps, the mar- 

 gins of ponds, and spots where water occasionally stands, also in salt-marshes 

 (Bab.); a very uncommon species in the island, i^i. July — October. 0. 



B. Med. — On the half-dried-np margins of the pond by Hardingshoot farm, in 

 very great plenty, 1844. A plant or two on a manure-heap at Gatehouse fai-m. 



W. Med. — On a manure-heap by the roadside near Ningwood green, in consi- 

 derable plenty, 1845. Freshwater gate, Mr. TV. D. Snooke. It is very possible 

 this species may have grown in the last-mentioned station, but I have never suc- 

 ceeded in finding it there, and till its discovery in the island in 1844 was inclined 

 to the opinion that the foregoing is the plant intended for C. rubrum, which in 

 many places, though not with us, is a far commoner species than C. urbicura. 



Root annual, tapering, with several stout, pale, branched fibres. Stem erect, 

 ascending or sonielimes procumbent and even prostrate, furrowed and angular, 

 filled with a white spongy pith, mostly striped with dark green and bright red or 

 purple, very leafy, alternately and often copiously branched from the base, the 

 lower branches, at least in the decumbent variety, widely divaricate, ascending 

 and procumbent below, those higher on the stem and at its summit more or less 

 erect or patent, becoming gradually shorter, giving a tapering or pyramidal out- 

 line to the entire plant. Flowers minute. Seed completely concealed by the per- 

 sistent perianth, deep reddish brown, orbicular, but somewhat inclined to ovate 

 and pointed, much flattened and subcochleate, with rounded obtuse periphery, 

 shining and smooth or slightly wrinkled only, similar to that of C. urbicum, but 

 rather thinner and scarcely exceeding Jth its size, not exceeding a moderate grain 

 of sand ; that of the terminal and 5-cleft flower of each cluster horizontal, the rest 

 vertical, all covered with a thin pellicle, which is much smoother, paler and looser 

 than in C. urbicum. 



It is now admitted that the C. hotryodes of Smith is merely a procumbent 

 variety of C. rubrum, .very similar to, if not identical with, the form of that spe- 

 cies we have just been describing. 



Gaudin (Fl. Helv.) remarks the extreme rarity of this species in Switzerland. 



The plant which goes under this name amongst the American botanists, and 

 which I have gathered in the suburban streets and on the vacant lots of Phila- 

 delphia, appears to be very diflferent from the C. rubrum of Europe, and makes a 

 certain approach to C. urbicum in the slender, erect, somewhat branched and 

 mostly leafless racemes, that bear a few small leaves amongst the lower clusters 

 alone. This plant has likewise much of the aspect of C. anthelmenticum in the 

 inflorescence, but is quite destitute of the strong smell of that species. It is more 

 branched and spreading than either this last or C urbicum, or indeed in any 

 of the upright forms of the European C. rubrum that have come under my own 

 nolice. 



8. C. Bonus Henricus, L. Good King Henry. Wild Spinach. 

 English Mercury. Leaves triangulari-sagittate somewhat hastate 

 mostly quite entire, spikes compound terminal and axillary erect 

 leafless, seed vertical smooth. Sm. E. Fl. ii. p. 9. Br. Fl. p. 347. 

 Lind. Syn. p. 215. E. B. xv. 1. 1033. Curt. Fl. Land. fasc. 3, 

 t. 17. 



On waste ground, village-greens, by roadsides and about farm-yards ; rather 

 unfrequent Fl. May, June (and partially through the summer). If. 



E. Med. — Farm-yard at Ninham, near Eyde. Abundant in Apse farm-yard. 



