378 THE GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 
leafy panicle. Fruiting perianths of 2 broad, flat segments, distinct 
nearly from the base, 3 or 4 lines long, quite entire, thin and net-veined, 
closely clasping the flat vertical seed ; intermixed with them are also 
several small, regular 5-cleft perianths, half closed over the fruit asin — 
Chenopodium. Seed horizontal. 
Of east European or west Asiatic origin, but has long been cultivated - 
in kitchen-gardens, and was formerly much used as spinach, and has 
established itself as an escape from cultivation in several parts of 
Europe. In Britain, said to be tolerably abundant on the seacoast near — 
Ryde, in the Isle of Wight: Fl. end of summer and autumn. The Ryde ~ 
specimens are much nearer to the common garden form than to the 
east Huropean wild variety often distinguished under the name of A. 
nitens, Rebent. 
1A. patula, Linn. (fig. 856). Common O.—A most variable plant 
in stature, in the shape of the leaf, and in the fruiting perianth. It is 
an annual, erect or prostrate, dark or pale green, or more or less mealy- 
white, but never so thickly frosted or scaly as A. rosea. Leaves all 
stalked ; the lower ones usually hastate and sometimes opposite; the 
upper ones often narrow and entire, or coarsely toothed. Flowers 
clustered in rather slender spikes, forming narrow, leafy, terminal 
panicles; the females mixed with the males, or a few in separate 
axillary clusters. Segments of the fruiting perianth united to about the 
middle, usually ovate or rhomboidal and pointed, often toothed at the 
edge and warted or muricate on the back, but very variable in size and 
shape, often of two kinds, a larger and a smaller, on the same plant. 
On the seacoasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, extending to the Arctic 
regions, besides being very common inland as a weed of cultivation. 
Abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season except early spring. ‘The 
principal forms, which have been distinguished as species, although 
they run very much one into another, are the following :— 
a. A. hastata, Linn. (deltoidea, Bab., Babingtoni, Woods). Erect or 
spreading. Lower leaves broadly triangular or hastate, often coarsely 
and irregularly toothed. 
b. A. erecta, Huds. Stem erect. Leaves lanceolate, the lower ones 
broader and hastate. 
c. A. angustifolia, Sm. Stem spreading or decumbent. Leaves mostly 
lanceolate or the upper ones linear. 
d. A. littoralis, Linn. Stems prostrate. Leaves still narrower than 
in the last, often toothed. 
All these varieties have maritime forms, with thicker succulent leaves, 
in some specimens very green and shining, in others more or less mealy- 
ea especially the variety deltoidea. 
A. rosea, Linn. (fig. 857). Frosted O.—Resembles some of the 
oe aun varieties of A. patula, but is much more covered with a white 
scaly meal; the leafstalks are much shorter, the floral leaves almost 
sessile, and the female perianths are mostly clustered in the axils of the 
leaves, whilst the male flowers are in rather dense spikes, forming short. 
terminal panicles. Leaves usually broadly triangular or rhomboidal, and 
coarsely toothed. Fruiting perianths always mealy-white, rather thick, 
rhomboidal or orbicular, often warted ; the segments united to above. 
the middle, but not so high as in A. portulacoides. A, laciniata, Linn. — 
A, arenaria, Woods, A. farinosa, Dumort. , 
