Page:Flora Australiensis Volume 5.djvu/172

160 XCVI. CHENOPODIACEAE. [Chenopodium. all in a long terminal panicle leafy at the base. Segments of the fruiting perianth broad, concave, somewhat thicker in the centre or keeled, contracted and united at the base, completely closing over the fruit. Stamens usually 5. Seeds all horizontally flattened, smooth and shining, the pericarp exceedingly thin. — C. lanceolatum, R. Br. Prod. 407; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 62 ; C. Browneanum, Roem. and Schult. Syst. vi. 275.

Queensland. Nerkool Creek, Bowman ; Armadilla, Barton ; Warwick, Beckler (the specimen bad and somewhat doubtful).

N. S. Wales. Paterson's river, R. Brown ; Liverpool plains, Leichhardt ; Paramatta, Woolls.

Victoria. Melbourne, Adamson; Bacchus marsh and Snowy river, F. Mueller; Skipton, Whan.

W. Australia. Drummond. n. 224.

The species is a very common weed in Europe and temperate Asia, and has spread as such over many other parts of the world. Whether it be really indigenous or introduced only into Australia is uncertain. In N. S. Wales and Queensland it is said to be known under the name of Fat Hen.

C. biforme, Nees in Pl. Preiss. i. 626, from Swan river, Preiss, n. 1256, described from a single specimen which I have not seen, may be one of the numerous forms of C. album. It is described as having the inflorescence flowers and indumentum of C. album, but with the leaves, especially in their dentation, more like those of C. murale, to which Moquin refers it in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 69.

4. C. murale, ''Linn. , Moq. in DC. Prod.'' xiii. ii. 00. A rather stout erect or decumbent much-branched annual, from under 1 ft. to nearly 2 ft. high, usually green, but sometimes with a slight whitish meal on the young shoots. Leaves on long petioles, broadly ovate triangular or rhomboidal, deeply and irregularly toothed, 1 to above 2 in. long. Flowers small, green or slightly mealy, the clusters in much-branched rather slender spikes, forming loose leafless cymes or panicles usually much shorter than or rarely as long as the leaves, almost all axillary, rarely lateral or terminal. Segments of the fruiting perianth broad, concave, somewhat keeled, closing over the fruit or nearly so. Stamens usually 5. Seeds all horizontally flattened, opaque or somewhat rugose, the margins thick and obtuse or thin and acute. Pericarp not readily separable from the seed. — C. crosum, R. Br. Prod. 407 ; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 68 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 313.

Queensland. Rockhampton, rare, O'Shanesy.

Victoria. Near Melbourne, Murray river, and Gipps Land, F. Mueller.

Tasmania. Kent's Group, Bass's Straits, R. Brown.

This is another European weed now widely dispersed over various temperate and warin regions of the globe. The Australian specimens I have seen are mostly single ones, and it is therefore probably introduced only. Brown's specimens have the inflorescences more compact, but they are still in young bud and some European ones are precisely similar to them.

5. C. triangulare, ''R. Br. Prod.'' 407. Stems weak procumbent or stragging, extending sometimes to 2 ft. or more, the whole plant green or with but little of white meal on the young shoots. Leaves on rather long petioles, from ovate to oblong or to broadly hastate in the typical form, obtuse or shortly mucronate, under 1 inch long, the upper ones often and sometimes all lanceolate. Flowers very small, in clusters or