48 
CHENOPODIACEAE 
cending branches, 3 to 11.5 dm. high; herbage roughish-pubescent; 
leaves petioled, 2.4 to 7.2 cm. long; utricle wrinkled, surpassed by the 
sepals.—Very common in orchards, gardens and waste lands; nat. from 
trop. Am. 
2. A. graecizans L. Tumble-weed. Bushy in outline, rigidly 
branched, 3 to 9 dm. high; herbage glabrous or nearly so; leaves 8 to 
16 mm. long.—Summer weed; extremely abundant in cultivated fields; 
nat. from trop. Am. The plant becomes rigid when dead and dry, and, 
when loosened by fall winds, is carried across the field as a tumble-weed, 
the seeds being thus most effectively dispersed. 
CHENOPODIACEAE. GOOSEFOOT FAMILY 
Herbs or shrubs, often succulent or scurfy, leafy or leafless. Flowers 
small, perfect or unisexual. Calyx 5 (or 4)-lobed. Stamens commonly 
5. Ovary superior, 1-celled, 1-ovuled. Styles or stigmas 2 or 3. Fruit 
an achene or utricle.—Species about 550, mostly of alkaline deserts or 
steppes or salt marshes. 
Leaves never spiny : embryo annular or curved or folded. 
Steins with foliaceous leaves. 
Flowers perfect, all of one kind. 
Calyx with a fleshy disk at base, the ovary partly sunk in it—1. .Beta. 
Calyx without disk, 5 (or 4)-parted, herbaceous or fleshy in fruit. 
2. Chenopodium. 
Flowers unisexual, of 2 kinds, the staminate with calyx, the pistillate with¬ 
out calyx and enclosed by 2 appressed bracts.3. Atriplex. 
Stems fleshy, jointed, with the leaves reduced to mere scales : flowers perfect 
or unisexual. 4. Salicornia. 
Leaves dry, rigid or spiny; flowers perfect; embryo spirally coiled....5. Salsola. 
1. BETA L. 
Glabrous biennial herbs. Roots fleshy. Leaves alternate, the lower 
long-petioled. Flowers in sessile axillary clusters, the clusters in panicled 
spikes. Stamens 5. Styles 2 or 3. (Perhaps Celtic bett, red, on account 
of the color of the root.) 
1. B. vulgaris L. Beet. Stems 5.8 to 17 dm. high; root conical; 
lower leaves 9.6 to 24 cm. long, oblong or ovate, the upper smaller.— 
Garden plant, native of Eur.; also naturalized in marshes. Var. crassa 
Alef. Sugar Beet. Roots very thick, sugar-producing.—Cult, crop plant. 
Var. cruenta Alef. Leaves large and showily colored.—Used for garden 
bedding. Var. cicla Moq. Chard. Leaf Beet. Spinach Beet. Leaves 
thick-ribbed.—Used as a pot-herb. 
2. CHENOPODIUM L. Goosefoot. Pigweed 
Annual or perennial herbs often white-mealy or glandular. Leaves 
alternate, petioled. Flowers greenish, sessile, clustered. Stamens 5 or 
fewer. Ovary depressed. Styles 2, rarely 3 or 4, slender. (Greek chen, 
goose, and pous, foot, on account of the shape of the leaves.) 
Annual; calyx‘deeply parted into lobes or segments. 
Herbage finely mealy, at least not pubescent or glandular; achene with the 
pericarp closely persistent on the seed. 
Erect; herbage light green.1. C. album. 
Diffuse; herbage dark green.,.„2. C. murale. 
