GOOSE-FOOT FAMILY 409 



6. Sileda. — Leaves semicylindric ; flowers perfect; perianth- 

 segments not keeled or winged. 



7. SAlsola. — Leaves awl-shaped ; flowers perfect ; perianth- 

 segments developing a broad, transverse, dorsal wing. 



1. Chenopodium (Goose-foot). — Very variable and therefore 

 difficult plants ; stem angular ; leaves flat, often triangular, entire 

 or lobed ; flowers minute, perfect, in axillary or panicled clusters ; 

 perianth deeply 3 — 5 -cleft, remaining unaltered, closing over the 

 fruit ; stamens 2 — 5 j stigmas 2 — 3. (Name from the Greek 

 chen, a goose, pous, a foot.) 



* Leaves undivided; flowers $-merous 



1. C. polyspermum (Many-seeded Goose-foot). — A glabrous 

 species, varying in size from 4 to 18 in. high, usually tinged with 

 red ; stem branched, spreading ; leaves nearly sessile, ovate- 

 elliptic ; flowers in branched, slender spikes ; seeds flattened 

 horizontally, shining, minutely dotted. — Waste ground ; not 

 common. A not inelegant plant, the numerous fruits not being 

 concealed by the perianths. Fl. August — October. Annual. 



2. C. Vulvdria (Stinking Goose-foot). — Distinguished by the 

 extremely disgusting fishy smell of the greasy meal with which the 

 plant is covered ; stem spreading ; leaves ovate-rhomboid, fleshy ; 

 flowers in small, dense spikes. — Waste places ; not common. — 

 Fl. August, September. Annual. 



** Leaves toothed or lobed; flowers $-merous 



3. C. album (Fat Hen, White Goose-foot). — Perhaps the com- 

 monest species of the genus, 1 — 3 feet high, succulent, and 

 covered with a white meal ; leaves ovate-rhomboid, bluntly 

 toothed, upper ones narrow, entire ; flowers in branched, dense, 

 clustering spikes, leafy below. — Waste places and cultivated 

 ground ; very common. — Fl. July — September. Annual. 



4.* C. opulifolium (Guelder-rose-leaved Goose-foot). — A species 

 which is not indigenous, with rounded, obtuse, dentate leaves ; 

 leafless clusters of flowers ; and large, smooth, shining seeds. 



5. C. serotinum (Fig-leaved Goose-foot). — An erect, mealy ^ 

 plant, with limp, oblong-hastate, cuneate, toothed leaves, and 

 flowers in a spike, with erect branches, leafy at the base only. — 

 Cultivated ground in the east of England ; rare. — Fl. August, 

 September. Annual. 



6. C. murdle (Sowbane, Nettle-leaved Goose-foot). — A nearly 

 glabrous, fetid species, with rhomboid-ovate, unequally serrate 



