Page:Flora Australiensis Volume 5.djvu/170

158 XCVI. CHENOPODIACEAE. [Chenopodium. Bonus-henricus to Blitum, a most unnatural combination, and leaves C. glaucum and C. rubrum, in which the seeds of some of the flowers are often erect, ambiguous between the two genera. I have therefore followed F. Mueller in reuniting them, at least as to the Australian species, and the very variable consistence of the fruiting perianth in C. carinatum and C. rubrum, leaves it very doubtful whether even the Linnean Blita, with their berry-like fruits, can be distinctly separated from Chenopodium.

S ECT 1. Rhagodioides. — ''Spinescent shrub. Flower-clusters in terminal spikes. Seeds vertical.''

Plant hoary or mealy-white. Leaves entire. . . 1. C. nitrariacea.

S ECT 2. Chenopodiastrum. — ''Herbs mealy-white or glabrous. Flower-clusters in terminal or axillary spikes or panicles. Seeds all or mostly horizontal.''

Erect and mealy-white or almost glabrous. Spikes terminal, often paniculate.

Leaves (usually very hoary or white) entire or very rarely hastate. . . 2. C. auricomum.

Leaves (green or mealy-white underneath or on both sides) at lcast the lower ones coarsely sinuate-toothed. . . 3. C. album.

Erect green annual. Cymes or panicles axillary and loose. Leaves broad, coarsely-toothed. . . 4. C. murale.

Decumbent or prostrate herbs (mostly annual).

Leaves entire or hastate. Stamen usually 1.

Stems weak and elongated. Leaves green or scarcely mealy. Flower-clusters in terminal interrupted spikes. . . 5. C. triangulare.

Stems short, much-branched. Leaves small, mealy. Flower-clusters small in the upper axils or scarcely spicate. . . 6. C. microphyllum.

Lower leaves sinuate-toothed, mostly green above, white underneath. Stamen usually 1. . . 7. C. glaucum.

S ECT 3. Botryois. — ''Erect glandular aromatic herbs or undershrubs not mealy. Seeds all or mostly horizontal.''

Leaves narrow, mostly sinuate-toothed. Flower-clusters axillary, forming a leafy panicle. . . 8. C. ambrosioides.

S ECT 4. Orthosporum. — Decumbent glandular herbs not mealy. Seeds all vertical. Flower-clusters all axillary.

Perianth-segments broad, concave with a thickened keel. . . 9. C carinatum.

Perianth-segments narrow, nearly erect, with a thickened keel. Minute filiform plant. . . 10. C. pumilio.

Perianth-segments linear, erect, the keel dilated into a broad fringed wing or crest. . . 11. C. cristatum.

Perianth-segments lanceolate, erect, the keel much thickened and angular at the base. . . 12. C. atriplicinum.

S ECT. 1. R HAGODIOIDES .—Spinescent shrub. Flower-clusters in terminal spikes. Seeds all vertical.

1. C. nitrariacea, F. Muell. A rigid divaricately branched or prostrate shrub or undershrub, hoary or mealy-white all over with a minute tomentum, the smaller branchlets often spinescent but not nearly so slender as in Rhagodia spinescens. Leaves alternate, sometimes clustered at the base of the flowering branchlets, linear oblong or linear-spathulate, very obtuse, entire, contracted into a short petiole, from under ½ in. to nearly 1 in. long. Flowers sessile, usually clustered in interrupted or dense spikes, either simple and terminal or forming short divaricate branches to a terminal panicle, mostly hermaphrodite