270 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



Order LYII. PHTTOLACCA'CEJE. (Pokeweed Family.) 



Herhs or suffrutirose plants, haviag alteniaie entire leaves witbout sHjndes. and racemed 

 Jlowers of 4-5 petaloid slightly connected se/jaZ^, with as many or twice as many stamens, 

 or sometimes iuJetinito. Ovary compound (rarely simple), consisting of 10 confluent 

 1-ovuled carpels ; styles or stigmas distinct. Fruit baccate ; eyiibryo curved round mealy 

 albumen. 



A small Order, and of little interest in Agriculture. 



1. PHYTOLACCA, Tournef. Pokeweed. 



[Gr. Phyton, a plant, and Lachanon, a pot-herb ; the young shoots being so used.] 



Flowers perfect. Calyx of five roundish-ovate, petal-like, persistent 

 sepals. Stamens 5-30. Omr?/ free, composed of 5-12 carpels united 

 in a ring, with as many short separate styles, in fruit forming a de- 

 pressed-globose 5 - 12-celled berry with a single vertical seed in each cell 



1. P. decan'dra, L. Stout ; smooth and often purple ; leaves ovate- 

 oblong ; berries 10-celled, juicy, dark-purple. 



Decandrous Phytolacca. Poke. Poke-weed. Pigeon-berry. Garget. 

 Fr. Morelle a Grappes. Germ. Kermesbeere. Span. Yerba carmin. 



i?«o? perennial, large, fusiform and branching. Stem herbaceous, 4-6 feet high, stout, 

 branching, terete or obtusely ribbed below the petioles and branches, finally purple. 

 Xeares 5 -10 inches long, acute or acuminate, thin ; jiefioZ^s half an inch to 2 inches or 

 more in length. Racemes 3-6 inches long, simple, mostly opposite the leaves, on angular 

 pedu?wZes 2-4 inches long. ^epaZs white, membranaceous at the margin. ^e?We5 verti- 

 cally depressed, umbilicate, orbicular, obscurely ribbed, 10-celled, 10-seeded, dark pur- 

 ple and juicy when mature. .Seeds compressed, roundish-reniform. 



Rich soils : on banks, borders of fields, in clearings, &c. : throughout the United States. 

 Fl. June -September. Fr. August - October. 



Ohs. The young shoots of this plant afford a good substitute for As- 

 paragus : the root is said to be actively emetic ; and the tincture of the 

 ripe berries is, or was, a popular remedy for chronic rheumatism. The 

 mature berries, moreover, have been used by the pastry cook in making 

 pies of equivocal merit. Notwithstanding all this, the plant is regarded 

 and treated as a weed by all neat farmers. 



Order LYIII. CHEXOPODIA'CE^. (Goosefoot Family.) 



Chiefly coarse weed-like lierls, with mostly alternate, more or less fleshy leaves, without 

 stipules ; flowers minute, greenish, without scarious bracts, — often dioecious or polygamous ; 

 caZi/x free from the ovary, 2- S-lobed, imbricated in the bud, persistent, embracing the 

 fruit : stamens usually as many as the calj'x-lobes, and opposite them ; ovai-y 1-cellod, 

 becoming a thin 1-seeded utride, or rarely al-ene in fruit ; embryo (in the genera noticed 

 here) coiled in a ring around the mealy albumen. 



§1. Flowers mostly perfect, or merely polygamous by the want of stamens in some of 

 them. 



Calyx 3- 5-cleft, or parted, the lobes merely keeled in fruit. Seed horizontal (rarely 

 vertical when the calyx is only 2-3-cleft). ' 1. CHExopOMCii. 



Calyx 5-cleft. the base indurated and corky in fruit. Seed horizontal. 2. Beta. 



Calyx of 3 -.5 sepals, dry or juicy in fruit. Utricle membranaceous. 

 Seed vertical. 3. BuxtTM:. 



^ 2. Flowers dioecious. 



Calyx of fertile flower, inflated-tubular, uuequaliy 2-4-toothed. 4. Spixacia. 



