CHENOPODIUM — GOOSEFOOT, PIGWEED. 235 



CHENOPODIACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Chiefly herbs, rarely undershrubs, with mostly 

 alternate, exstipulate leaves. Calyx deeply divided, sometimes tubular at 

 the base, persistent, commonly enclosing the fruit. Stamens generally of 

 the same number as the lobes of the calyx, and inserted opposite them or 

 on their base. Ovary free, 1-celled, with a single ovule attached to its 

 base ; styles or stigmas 2, rarely 3 to 5. Fruit a thin utricle, rarely an 

 achenium. 



A large order, comprising many common weeds, and a few plants, as 

 the beet, spinach, and chenopodium of economic importance. 



CHENOPODIUM. — Goosefoot, Pigweed. 



Character of the Genus. — Calyx 5-cleft, rarely 2- to 4-cleft or parted, 

 more or less enveloping the fruit. Stamens commonly 5. Styles 2, rarely 

 3. Seed round, flattened. 



Coarse, weedy plants, usually somewhat succulent, and with a white 

 mealiness, or viscid glandular. Flowers small, greenish, numerous, sessile. 

 in clusters collected in terminal spikes. 



Chenopodium ambrosioides Linn6 (Var. Anthelminticum 

 Gray). — Wormseed. 



Description. — Flowers mostly in leafless spikes. Stem erect, angular, 

 sparingly branched, 1 to 3 feet high. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute, nar- 

 rowed at the base, petiolate, deepty sinuate-serrate, the lower sometimes 

 almost laciniate, pinnatifid, thin, smoothish, destitute of mealiness, glandu- 

 lar beneath, bright green. The whole plant has a strongly aromatic 

 odor. 



Habitat. — Introduced from Tropical America ; common southward, in 

 waste places. 



Chenopodium album Linne. — Pigweed, Lamb's Quarters. 



Description. — Flowers in dense or loose, nearly leafless racemes. 

 Stem erect, sulcate-striate, loosely branched, 1 to 5 feet high. Leaves 

 varying from rhombic-ovate to lanceolate or linear above, all or only the 

 lower more or less sinuate-toothed, mostly with a pale mealiness. A very 

 variable species. 



Habitat. — A very common weed in cultivated grounds and about farm 

 buildings. 



Of these two species the first is introduced on account of its medicinal 

 importance, and the second because it typifies a number of closely related 

 species of common weeds, differing from the official plant in being mealy 

 instead of viscid glandular. 



Part Used. — The fruit of C. ambrosioides Linne, var. anthelminticum 

 Gray. Official name : Chenopodium — United States Pharmacopceia. 



