Chenopodiacecs i "jy 



INCOMPLETE. 



CHENOPODIACE^. 



Typical plant, White Goosefoot {Chenopodium album). 



Note, plant herbaceous (some plants are somewhat shrubby), 

 succulent ; leaves alternate (often in the order very succulent) ; 

 flowers inconspicuous (in many plants of the order we have 

 separate staminate and pistillate flowers) ; calyx inferior, five- 

 lobed (in the order it is from two- to five-lobed, usually five), 

 persistent (often in the order it very much enlarges as it 

 surrounds the fruit) ; corolla absent ; stamens five, opposite tie 

 sepals (rarely in order one or two) ; pistil superior, syncarpous ; 

 two or three styles. 



This order is widely distributed, the plants growing especially 

 in salt marshes. Many of the plants are esculent, others were 

 formerly much employed in the manufacture of soda, which was 

 obtained from their ashes, known as barilla. 



Principal British Genera. 



Atriplex, Orache and Purslane. Flowers generally uni- 

 sexual ; perianth five-cleft in staminate and two-cleft in pis- 

 tillate flowers, very much enlarged round fruit, which is one- 

 seeded. Several species of common weeds. 



Beta, Beet. Fruit one-seeded, immersed in succulent base 

 of calyx ; three small bracts beneath the calyx. Edible ; much 

 cultivated for manufacturing sugar. Mangel-wurzel is a variety 

 of the Beet. 



Chenopodium.. Flowers differ from above in having no 

 bracts, and the perianth not becoming fleshy on fruiting. 

 There are several species. C. album is the commonest, a 

 plant which overruns gardens and grows on waste places. It 

 may be used as a potherb. C. Bonus-Henricus, Good King 

 Harry, or All-good, is also edible. Spinacea oleracea, Spinach, 

 is an exotic genus with four styles cultivated for food purposes. 



