CHENOPODIUM album.
White Goosefoot.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. 5-cleft, inferior. Cor. none. Seedl ,
lenticular, invested with the closed five-sided calyx.
Spec. Char. Leaves ovate, inclining to rhomboid, jagged,
entire towards the base; upper ones oblong and
perfectly entire. Seeds smooth.
Syn. Chenopodium album. Linn. Sp. PI. 319. Sm.
F l .B r i t .2T5. Huds. 106. With. 2 7 1 . Hull. 56.
Relh. 101. Sibth. 88. Abbot. 55. Curt. Lond.
Jasc. 2 . t. 15.
Blitum Atriplex sylvestris dictum. Rail Syn. 154.
(3. Chenopodium viride. Linn. Sp. PI. 319. Wiih. 272.
Hull. 5 6 .
C. album (3. Huds. 106.
y . C. foliis integris racemosum. Dill, in Raii Syn. 155.
T h e most common of its genus in all kinds of cultivated
ground, as well as about dunghills and waste places, flowering
throughout the summer and autumn. It is known by its peculiar
hoary or silvery aspect, which is caused, not by any
hair or down, but by a mealiness, greasy to the touch, and
becoming at length dry and chaffy.
Root annual. Stem branched, angular, rarely reddish. Leaves
onlongish stalks ; the principal ones ovate inclining to deltoid,
coarsely toothed, entire towards the base: the upper ones,
about the flowering portion of the stem, more or less oblong,
and perfectly entire. Bunches of flowers oblong, blunt, erect,
compound, accompanied by small leaves, but those leaves are
not intermixed with the flowers. Calyx frosted. Seeds brown,
very smooth, not dotted.
Dillenius in Ray’s Synopsis, 155, 156. n. 10 and 13, mentions
what seem to us trivial varieties of this plant, which is
a very variable species. Its most remarkable and frequent variety
is C. viride of Linnæus, known by its greener hue, narrower
and more entire leaves (sometimes quite entire), and
more elongated clusters of flowers.
C. album is generally esteemed an useless weed, though
cattle will feed upon it. We believe it is eatable when boiled,
like C. Bonus Henricus.
A p n .A o j .Bibb'sTdd- b y J a i Sower by Zandon.