SECT. II 



PHANEROGAMIA 



507 



in the reduced flowers one may often distinguish traces of the suppressed whorls, 

 which are not in any way represented in the more simple, tricyclic types. 



Family Chenopodiaeeae. — Flowers usually without bracteoles, 

 with a single calycoid PERIGONE ; androe- 



Cium HAPLOSTEMONOUS, EPIPETALOUS ; 



ovary two- to five-merous, with ONE 

 OVULE. Fruit generally a nut (Fig. 457). 

 The Chenopodiaeeae are herbs and small 

 woody plants, with scattered, often fleshy, 

 leaves, and greenish inflorescences of small, 

 clustered flowers. The flowers are often 

 unisexual in consequence of suppression. 

 The nutlets are filled with a mealy 

 albumen. 



Chenopodium, Goosefoot or Pigweed, hermaph- 

 rodite, with greenish, and after flowering, dry 

 perianth ; Blitum, with succulent perianth when 

 the fruit is ripe ; Atriplex, Orache, monoecious, 

 with naked female flowers ; Beta, Beet, epigynous ; 

 Spinacia, Spinach, dioecious, the perianth harden- 

 ing during the ripening of the fruit and adhering 

 to the nut. 



Geographical Distribution. — The Chenopodiaeeae are for the most part 

 saline plants, and chiefly occur near the ocean or in deserts and steppes. In such 

 situations they are usually developed as succulent and not infrequently prickly 

 herbs or woody plants. The most important cultivated species of this family are 

 the Spinach, Spinacia oleraeea, and the different varieties of the common Beet, 

 Beta vulgaris, of which the most important is the Sugar-Beet, B. altissima. Beta, 

 vulgaris has itself probably been derived by culture from B. maritima, growing 

 wild on the coast of the Mediterranean. 



Officinal. — Beta vulgaris yields cane-sugar, Sacchabum. 



Family Amarantaceae. — Flowers 

 with two large bracteoles, and dry, 

 often highly coloured, perigone ; in 

 other respects resembling the pre- 

 ceding family. 



' Geographical Distribution. 

 — The plants of this order are 

 mostly tropical ; but several have 

 found their way northward, growing 

 as weeds and resembling the Cheno- 

 podiaeeae in habit. 



Fig. 457. — a, Flower of Beta vu 



b, gyncecium of Chenopodium multi- 

 Jldum, with part of wall of ovary 

 removed ; c, seed of Beta vulgaris. 

 (After Volckens in Natilvl. PJlan- 

 zenfamilwn, magnified.) 



Fig. 45S. — Diagrams of the Caryophyllueeae. A, 

 Viscaria, lateral walls present in the lower part 

 of the ovary ; B, Silene, lateral walls absent. (After 

 Bichler.) 



Family Caryophyllaceae. 



— Flowers with calyx and 



corolla, the latter sometimes 



suppressed ; andrcscium DIPLOSTEMONOUS or, by 



stemonous. Ovary rarely with only one ovule, 



reduction, haplo- 

 more frequently 



