PHTTOLACCACE^. (POKEWEEiD FAMILY.) 361 



1. OXYBAPHVS, Vahl. Oxtbaphus. 



Plowcrs 1 -5 in the same 5-lobed membranaceous broad and open involuci'e, 

 which enlarges, and is thin and reticulated in fruit. Calyx with a very short 

 tube and a bell-shaped (rose or purple) deciduous limb, which is plaited in 

 the bud. Stamens mostly 3. Style filiform : stigma capitate. Fruit achenium- 

 like, several-ribbed or angled. — Herbs, with very large and thick perennial 

 roots, opposite leaves, and mostly clustered small flowers. (Name 6^v^acj)ov, 

 a vinegar-sauca; or small shallow vessel ; from the shape of the involucre.) 



1. O. nyctaginens, Sweet. Nearly smooth; stem repeatedly forked 

 (1° - 3° high) ; leaves oblong-ovate, triangular-ovate, or somewhat heart-shaped ; 

 involucres 3 - 5-flowered. — Rocky places, from Wisconsin and Illinois south- 

 ward and westward. Juno -Aug. 



Order 89. PHYTOLACCACEJE. (Pokeweed Family.) 



Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect flowers, with nearly the 

 characters of Chenopodiaceae, hut usually a several-celled ovary composed of 

 as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a herry in fruit ; — represent- 

 ed only by the typical genus 



1. PHYTOLACCA, Toum. Pokeweed. 



Calyx of 5 rounded and petal-like sepals. Stamens 5-30. Ovary of 5-12 

 carpels, united in a ring, with as many short separate styles, in frait forming a 

 depressed-globose 5-12-colled beny with a single vertical seed in each cell. 

 Embryo curved in a ring around the albumen. — Tall and stout perennial herbs, 

 with large petioled leaves, and flowers in racemes wliich become lateral and op- 

 posite the leaves. (Name compounded of (^vtov, plant, and the French lac, lake, 

 in allusion to the coloring matter resembling that pigment which the berries 

 yield.) 



1. P. dccdndra, L. (Common Poke or Scokb. Gaeget. Pioeon- 

 Bekry.) Stamens 10 : styles 10. — Borders of woods and moist ground ; com- 

 mon. July - Sept. — A smooth plant, with a rather unpleasant odor, and a very 

 large poisonous root often 4' - 6' in diameter, sending up stout stalks (in early 

 spring sometimes eaten as a substitute for Asparagus), which are at length 6° - 

 9° high. Calyx white : ovary green ; the long racemes of dark-purple homes 

 filled with crimson juice, ripe in autumn. 



Order 90. CHENOPODIACEAE, (Goosefoot Family.) 



Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with chiefly alter- 

 nate leaves, and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish flowers, 

 with the free calyx imbricated in the bud; the stamens as many as its lobes, or 

 rarely fewer, and inserted opposite Uiem or on their base ; the 1-celled ovary 

 becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achenium in fruit. Embryc 

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