408 chenopodiAcejE 



i.* A. relroflexus. — Stem erect, branched; flowers 5-merous ; 

 stamens 5 ; bracts membranous, awl-shaped, longer than the fruit. 

 — Waste places near towns. — Fl. August. , Annual. 



2* A. Blitum.—Stem straggling, smooth, 1 — 2 feet high; 

 leaves ovate, long-stalked ; flowers 3-merous in small, lateral 

 clusters, and a small, leafless, terminal spike; stamens 3. — Waste 

 places near towns. — Fl. August. Annual. 



Ord. LXIII. ChenopodiAce^e. — Goose-foot Family 



A considerable Order of herbaceous and somewhat shrubby 

 plants, common weeds in many temperate climates and most 

 abundantly represented in salt marshes and on the sea-shore. 

 They have scattered, simple, exstipulate leaves which are more or 

 less inclined to be fleshy ; and small and inconspicuous, polysym- 

 metric, sometimes monoecious or dioecious flowers. The -perianth 

 is 3 — 5-lobed, imbricate and persistent, decidedly partaking of the 

 characters of a calyx, and sometimes, as in Atriplex, with a tend- 

 ency to become enlarged in the fruiting-stage. The stamens are 

 5, rarely 1 or 2, springing from the base of the perianth and 

 opposite its lobes ; ovary superior or half-inferior, 1 -chambered, 

 i-ovuled ; style 2 or 4-cleft, rarely simple ; stigmas undivided ; fruit 

 dry and indehiscent, enclosed in the perianth. Many of the plants 

 of this Order are important articles of food for cattle or for human 

 beings. Beta maritima, a common sea-shore weed, is believed to 

 be the origin of the cultivated Mangold Wurzel, the White or 

 Sugar Beet so extensively cultivated in Germany and France for 

 making sugar, and the Red Beetroot which is eaten as a salad. 

 Spindcia olerdcea, supposed to be a native of western Asia, the 

 leaves of which contain a large proportion of Saltpetre, has long 

 been cultivated as an esculent under the name of Spinach ; but 

 the leaves of the Garden Orache {Atriplex hortensis), of the Aus- 

 tralian Spinach {Chenopodium auricomum), of the Beet, and of 

 other plants are used in the same way. 



1. Chenopodium. — Leaves flat ; flowers perfect ; perianth 

 remaining unaltered and not adhering to the fruit. 



2. Beta. — Leaves flat ; flowers perfect ; fruit adhering to the 

 fleshy f perianth-tube. 



3. Atriplex. — Leaves flat ; flowers imperfect ; perianth enlarg- 

 ing, but not adhering to the fruit. 



4. OBfoNl — Similar, but with a perianth adherent to the fruit. 



5. Salic6rnia. — Jointed, leafless plants ; flowers perfect ; perianth 

 fleshy. 



