272 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLA>sTS. 



Gardens, vards. and waste places : introduced. Xative of Europe. Fl. Julv -August. 

 Fr. Oct. " ' , • ^ 



Obs. This coarse and rather homely weed has become very extensively 

 naturalized throughont the United States, and is quite troublesome in 

 gardens. The young plant is sometimes used as a pot-herb, but would 

 be gladly dispensed with by all neat gardeners and farmers. 



* 3Iore or less viscid glandular, with a strong balsamic odor, not mealy ; 

 embryo not forming a complete ring. 

 3. C. ambrosioi'des, L. Leaves oblong, acute at each end, remotely 

 dentate : racemes interrupted, leafy. 

 AMBROSLA.-LIKE Chexopodioi. Mexican Tea. 



Annual. Stem 1-2 feet liigh. much branclied, angular. Leaves 1-2 inches long, — 

 those on the stem narrowed to a. petiole, those on the branches and racemes lance-linear, 

 mostly entire, subsessile. Flowers in interrupted sessile clusters, on slender axillarv 

 leafy branches. 



Var. anthehninticum, Gray. Perennial (?). Leaves more strongly toothed, the lower 

 sometimes almost laciniate pinnatifid. Spikes mostly leafless. 

 Naturalized from tropical America. 



Obs. Most authors consider C. ambrosioi' des and C. anthelmin' ticum 

 as distinct species ; we follow Gray in placing the latter as a variety 

 of the former. Both forms are common in waste places, especially 

 southward ; they have both a strong- odor which is most powerful and 

 disagreeable in the var. anthelmin' tic um. which is popularly known as 

 ^Vorm-seed. The whole plant contains a volatile oil to which the odor 

 is due. This is most abundant in the seed, or rather in the utricle 

 which surrounds it. The seeds themselves, and the oil which they yield 

 are well-known and effective worm-destroying medicines. 



There are several other species of this genus to be met with, especially 

 near the coast, but they are not sufficiently common to be admitted 

 here. ^ 



2. BE'TA, Tournef. Beet. 



[Celtic, Beil, red ; or from its fruit resembling the Greek letter B {Beta).'] 



Calyx urceolate, 5-cleft, finally indurated at base — the lobes remaining 

 unchanged. Ovary depressed ; stigmas 2. Utricle immersed in the base 

 of the calyx and covered by the lobes. Seed horizontal. Herbaceous, 

 witli a large fleshy root formed of concentric z-^nes. Flowers glome- 

 rate in spikes or paniculate racemes. 



1. B. vclga'ris, -L. Smoothish : grednish purple: lower leaves ovate- 

 oblong, wavy : upper ones lance-ovate ; flowers in dense sessile axillary 

 clusters, interruptedly spicate. 

 Common Beta. Beet. Garden-beet. Sugar-beet. 

 Fr. Bette-rave. Germ. Gemeiner Mangold. Span. Acelga. 



Root biennial, fleshy, large (often 3-4 inches in diameter and more than a foot lonf'), 

 terete, tapering downwards, deep purple or yellowish — exhibiting, on a transverse section, 

 concentnc layers, which seem to have some relation to the number and size or vigor of 



