378 THE GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. — [ Atriplex. 
but apparently absent from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts. In 
Britain, only on the eastern shores of England. VU, swmmer and autumn. 
3, 4. hortensis, Linn. (fig. 853). Garden Orache.—An erect, stout 
annual, attaining 4 or 5 feet in height. Leaves broadly triangular, cor- 
date or hastate, or the upper ones narrow, green or slightly white and 
mealy underneath. Flowers very numerous and crowded, in a long, 
terminal, 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 as in 
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 esta- 
blished 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. #7. end of summer, and autumn. .The Ryde specimens 
are much nearer to the common garden form than to the east European 
wild variety often distinguished under the name of A, nitens, Rebent. 
4, 4. patula, Linn. (fig. 854). Common Orache.—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 4. 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. Abun- 
dant 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., Babingtonii, 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. 3 
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- 
white, especially the variety deltoidea. 
5, &. rosea, Linn. (fig. 855). Frosted Orache.—Resembles some of 
the maritime varieties of A. patula, but is much more covered witha 
white scaly meal; the leafstalks are much shorter, the floral leaves almost 
