CHENOPODIUM ficifolium.
Fig-leaved Goosefoot.
PENTANDRIA Digynia. .
G en. Char. Cal. 5-cleft, inferior. Cor. none. Seed 1,
lenticular, invested with the closed five-sided calyx.
Spec. Char. Leaves sinuated, somewhat hastate, jagged,
entire towards the base; upper ones oblong and
perfectly entire. Seeds dotted.
Syn. Chenopodium ficifolium. Sm. FI. Brit. 276.
Relh. 101.
C. viride. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t. 16.
C. serotinum. Huds. 106. Sibth. 88. Abbot. 55.
Blitum ficus folio. D ill, in Raii Syn. 15 5 .
F o u n d , like others of its genus, about dunghills and waste
places, but much more rarely than the generality of them. It
occurs in several spots near London. Our specimen was sent
by Mr. Turner from Yarmouth.
This species is annual, flowering in August. Mr. Curtis
first clearly ascertained its specific difference from C. album in
the seeds being dotted or reticulated, which difference is confirmed
by its much greener hue, the purple stain at the base of
the foot-stalks, and the hastate, or fig-like, form of the leaves,
their lobes being more round-pointed, and the middle one more
elongated, than in C. album. Mr. Curtis erred only in taking
it for the viride of' Linnaeus, which is a variety of album
t. 1723; whereas Hudson mistook it for the serotinum of the
same author, a species not yet found in Britain. The plant
before us, allied to C. album on the one hand, approaches on
the other to C. glaucum in some respect's, and is a sort of intermediate
species, though very distinct from both.
J / H
A p r. i.ifio jJ au N is7 id T>y J a fSoH -erby X im d o n .