192 POPULAR FLORA. 



ovary, but not adhering to it, and bearing from one to five stamens. Styles 2 to 5, 

 short. Weeds (several called Pigweeds), abounding in cultivated or waste grounds, and 

 some are pot-herbs. The small flowers and fruits make them too difficult for the beginner. 

 The following key will lead the student to the name of the principal common kinds. 

 Leafless fleshy herbs, in salt marshes, with perfect flowers in fleshy spikes, {Salkdrnia) Samphikk. 

 Leafy lierbs, with broad or broadish, generally tender leaves, not prickly : calyx wingless. 

 Flowers perfect. 



In clusters or spiked heads: calyx becoming berry-like, altogether making a 



strawberry-like red pulpy fruit, {Bliium) Blite. 



In small sessile clusters collected in spikes or panicles: calyx dry and herba- 

 ceous. 

 Akene thick and hard, below adherent to the calyx. Leaves smooth, (Beta) *Beet. 

 Akene very thin and breaking away from the seed. Leaves often mealy. 



Pigweeds, ( Chfiiopodlum) Goosefoot. 



Flowers monoecious: the fertile ones single in the axils of the leaves. Sea-coast, and 



one rarely cultivated as a pot-herb, (A'tiiplex) Ohache. 



Flowers dioecious, in spiked clusters: calyx over the fruit, with 2 to 4 horns or pio- 



jections: leaves arrow-shaped, (Spinacla) *Si'INACH. 



Leafy and much-branched plants on the sea-shore; tlie leaves awl-shaped and prickly- 

 tipped: flowers perfect: calyx winged in fruit, {Sulsola) Saltwort. 



78. AMARANTH FAMILY. Order AMARANTACEiE. 

 Herbs, much like the last family in almost every character, except that the 



flowers are furnished with 3 or more dry and scale-like thin bracts : these are 

 sometimes brightly colored, so as to make showy clusters or bunches, and, 

 being dry, they do not wither after blossoming. The little one-seeded pod 

 in many cases is a py.xis (242), that is, it opens round the middle, the upper 

 part falling off, as a lid. The common species belong mainly to two genera: — 



Flowers in spiked or panicled clusters, terminal or axillary: stamens 5 or 3, separate: 

 little pod opening by a lid. To this belongs one kind of Pigweed, and the 

 Prince's Feather, Love-lies-bleedixg, Coxco]\id, &c., in gardens and 

 enriched soil, (AnMrdnius) Amaranth. 



Flowers in a head : stamens 5, monadelphous, and the filaments 3-cleft, the middle lobe 



bearing the anther, (Gomphrena) *Globe-Amakanth. 



79. BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Order POLYGONACE^. 



Herbs with alternate entire leaves, and mostly perfect flowers ; with a calyx of 4 to 6 

 ,sepals (separate or united at the base), and 3 to 9 stamens inserted on its base : ovary one- 

 celled making a one-seeded akene; its styles or stigmas 2 or 3. Besides, this family may 

 always be known by the stipules which form a sheath above each joint (as in Fig. 137). 

 The watery juice is often sour, as in Rhubarb and Sorrel, sometimes sharp and bitini'. 



