Dicotyledons with Incomplete Flowers — Chenopodiacecz. 
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species, besides Quinoa, are : Beet (Beta maritima ), of which different varieties are cultivated for the table, for cattle¬ 
feeding (Mangold Wurzel), and, on the Continent, for the manufacture of sugar ; one ton of the root being 
reckoned to yield 100 lbs. of raw or 55 lbs. of refined sugar ; and Spinach (Spinacia oleracea), a common pot-herb, 
probably introduced originally from Western Asia. Species of Goosefoot (Chenopodium) and Orache ( Atriplex ) are 
sometimes used as substitutes for Spinach. Glasswort and Saltwort contain abundant alkaline salts, and carbonate 
of soda is extracted from their ash, called barilla. The seeds of the American Chenopodium anthelminticum have 
repute as a vermifuge, and one or two aromatic species are used in infusion as stomachics. 
Natural Order 
AMARANTACEiE. Tab. 69. 
Diagnosis. — Usually herbs with alternate or opposite exstipulate leaves. 
Flowers small, surrounded by scarious bracts. Stamens hypogynous, 5 or 
fewer, free or united. Ovary free, 1-celled, with one or several ovules. 
Embryo vertical, curved around mealy albumen. 
Distribution. — A considerable Natural Order, chiefly confined to Tropical and Subtropical 
countries and Australia. None are indigenous in Britain. 
USES, &c.—Nearly allied to Chenopodiaceae, from which they are generally distinguishable at sight by their 
dry, scarious, often coloured bracts or bracteoles, which in a few species render the inflorescence very ornamental, as 
in Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) and its allies, Cockscomb (Celosia cvistata ), an abnormally fasciated 
condition of the species, Love-lies-bleeding and Prince’s Feather (Amarantus). A South American Iresine is grown 
for the sake of its claret-red foliage : the majority of the species, however, are unattractive weeds. One or two 
species of Amarantus are cultivated in Northern India for their farinaceous seeds, and Blite (Amarantus Blitum) 
in South Europe is used as Spinach. 
