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ro 
786 CHENOPODIUM. | 
handsome and well-known genus pentstemon 
are assigned by some botanists to the genus che- 
lone. ; . 
CHENOPODIUM, — popularly Goosefoot. A 
large genus of apetalous plants, forming the type 
of the natural order chenopodiz or chenopodi- 
aces. The genus itself will be noticed under the 
word Goosrroot. ‘The order chenopodiz com- 
prises within Great Britain, either as weeds or 
as cultivated plants, about 160 hardy herbaceous 
species, 6 or 7 hardy ligneous species, about 30 
greenhouse species, and 8 or 9 hothouse species ; 
and these are distributed among the genera 
chenopodium, salsola, atriplex, blitum, beta, 
spinacea, ceratocarpus, salicornia, galenia, and 
thirteen others. All the species have small, 
green, herbaceous, apetalous flowers, a small 
number of stamens, one-celled membranous fruit, 
and soft, succulent, unstipulate leaves. They 
differ from the species of Amarantaceze in not 
having their flowers coloured and enveloped in 
membranous bracts, and from those of Polygon- 
aceze and Urticeze in not having any stipules; 
but they are distinguishable from all, and espe- 
cially from Amarantaceze, much more by their 
habit than by any artificial character. Some 
have a fetid smell ; almost all have a coarse, 
rank, weedy appearance; very few can be re- 
garded as, even in a subordinate sense, ornamen- 
tal plants; and a remarkably large number are 
useful for some one or other of many economical 
purposes. The roots of the beets are cultivated 
for boiling, for pickling, and for the manufacture 
of sugar; the leaves of the beets are esteemed as 
esculents and for forage; the leaves of spinaceze 
and of many chenopodiums are eaten as spinach ; 
the Quinoa plant is said to be as important to 
the Peruvians as wheat, maize, and potatoes are 
to Europeans; the salsolas, the salicornias, the 
anabases, the salt-marsh chenopodiums, and many 
species of atriplex, yield a very large produce of 
soda; one chenopodium is a vermifuge; several 
chenopodiums are tonics and antispasmodics ; one 
atriplex is an emetic; and not one species of the 
order, so far as is known, possesses any delete- 
rious property. The Chenopodex are thus re- 
markable for combining nastiness of habitat and 
ugliness of appearance, with an extraordinary 
amount and diversified range of utility. 
CHERIMOYER, — botanically Anona Cheri- 
molia. A tropical fruit-tree, of the same genus 
as the custard apple. It is a native of Peru, and 
of other parts of tropical South America, and 
was introduced to Britain in 1739. Its stem is 
lofty and massive in its native country, but sel- 
dom grows higher than between 12 and 18 feet 
in Britain; its leaves are large, bright green, 
oval, and pointed at both ends; its flowers are 
solitary, brown, and fragrant, and appear in July 
and August; its fruit is oblong, scaly on the out- 
side, of a dark purple colour when ripe; and the 
flesh of its fruit is white, soft, sweet, mixed with 
several coffee-coloured seeds, and held in higher } 
CHERRY-TREE. 
esteem by the Creoles of Peru than that of any 
other fruit of their country. 
CHERLERIA. A genus of ornamental plants. 
of the carnation tribe. The sedum-like species, 
C. sedoides, is a herbaceous, low-growing, peren- 
nial-rooted native of the mountains of the Scot- 
tish Highlands. Its flower has a yellow and 
white colour, and appears in July and August. 
Five other species are known. 
CHERRY (Brrp). See Brrp-Cuerry. 
CHERRY-LAUREL. See Lavrzt. 
CHERRY-TREE,—hbotanically Cerasus. A ge- 
nus of fruit and ornamental trees, of the rosace- 
ous-flowered tribe. A general view of the genus 
is given under the word Curasus; and two or 
three prominent species, including a number of 
varieties, will be found noticed in the articles 
Brrp-Cuerry and Laursn. We shall notice, in 
the present article, only a few of the species 
which are more strictly known as cherry-trees ; 
and then take a comprehensive view of the vari- 
eties and economy of such cherry-trees as are 
cultivated for their fruit. 
The Mahaleb, or perfumed cherry-tree, Cerasus 
Mahaleb, is a native of Austria, Switzerland, and 
the north of Europe, and was introduced from 
the first of these countries to Britain in 1714. | 
It is a handsome small tree, and has a frequent | 
place in shrubberies and parks as an ornamental | 
plant, but does not rank as a cultivated fruit- 
tree. 
tween 10 and 20 feet; its branches are covered 
with a smooth, whitish-grey bark; its leaves are 
small, oval, and lucid green, and stand alter- 
nately on the branches; and its flowers are white, 
and bloom in April and May. Its fruit is greed- 
ily eaten by birds; and its timber always emits 
an agreeable fragrance, and is much esteemed by 
cabinet-makers, particularly in France. 
timber, and not any property of the living plant, 
is alluded to in the popular name of “ perfumed 
cherry-tree.”—Two thoroughly established vari- 
eties of the Mahaleb are now well known in the 
public nurseries, and recognised by systematic 
botany,—the yellow-fruited, C. I. fructu-flavo,— 
and the broad-leaved, C. M. latifolia. 
The ground cherry-tree, Cerasus chamecerasus, 
is a native of central and eastern Europe, and 
was introduced to Britain from Austria near the 
close of the 16th century. It is a deciduous 
shrub, of from 4 to 8 or 9 feet in height; and is 
cultivated solely for ornament. Its branches are 
numerous and horizontal, and they spread out 
on all sides, and are very subject to droop to the 
ground, and there strike root in the manner of 
stolons or layers; its leaves are long, narrow, en- 
tire, very smooth, similar in appearance to the 
leaves of some kinds of willows, light-green above, 
and bluish or sea-green below; its flowers are 
shaped like those of the common cherry, but are 
smaller, and grow on slender footstalks, in groups 
of two, three, or four, from the joints of the 
branches; and its fruit resembles that of the 
Its stem usually attains a height of be- | 
The | 
