chenopodiacejE. (goosefoot family.) 405 



tube and a bell-shaped (rose or purple) deciduous limb, plaited in the bud. 

 Stamens mostly 3. Style filiform : stigma capitate. Fruit achenium-like, 

 several-ribbed or angled. — Herbs, abounding on the western plains, with very 

 large and thick perennial roots, opposite leaves, and mostly clustered small flow- 

 ers. (Name 6^vfia(j)ov, a vinegar-saucer, or small shallow vessel ; from the shape 

 of the involucre. ) 



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

 (l°-3° high) ; leaves varying from ovate, or somewhat heart-shaped to lanceo- 

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

 southward and westward. June - Aug. 



Order 84. PHYTOLACCACE.i:. (Pokeweed Family.) 



Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect /lowers, havihg the general 

 characters of Chenopodiacese, but usually a several-celled ovary composed 

 of as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit ; — repre- 

 sented 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 fruit forming a 

 depressed-globose 5-12-celled berry, with a single vertical seed in each cell. 

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

 with large petioled leaves, and terminal racemes which become lateral and op- 

 posite the leaves. (Name compounded of (pvrov, plant, and the French lac, 

 lake, in allusion to the crimson coloring matter resembling that pigment which 

 the berries yield. ) 



1. P. dec^ndra, L. (Common Poke or Scoke. Garget. Pigeon- 

 Bekry.) Stamens 10: styles 10. — Low grounds. 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 (which are in early spring sometimes 

 eaten as ti substitute for Asparagus), at length 6°-9° high. Calyx white: 

 ovary green ; the long racemes of dark-purple berries filled with crimson juice, 

 ripe in autumn. 



Order 85. CHENOPODIACEjE. (Goosefoot Family.) 



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

 nate leaves, and no stipules nor scar ious bracts, minute greenish flowers, with 

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

 occasionally fewer, and inserted opposite them or on their base ; the 1-celled 

 ovary becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achenium. Embryo coiled 

 into a ring around the mealy albumen, when there is any, or else condupli- 

 cale, or spiral. — Calyx persistent, mostly enclosing the fruit. Styles or 

 stigmas 2, rarely 3-5. (Mostly inert or innocent, weedy plants : several 

 are pot-herbs, such as Spinach and Beet.) 



