Obs, Most authors consider C. ambrosioi'des and C. anthelmin'ticum
as distinct species ; we follow Gray in placing the latter as a variety
of the former. Both forms are common in waste places, especially
southward ; they have both a strong odor which is most powerful and
disagreeable in the var. anthelmin'ticum, which is popularly known as
Worm-seed. The whole plant contains a volatile oil to which the odor
is due. This is most abundant in the seed, or rather in the utricle
which surrounds it. The seeds themselves, and the oil which they yield
are well-known and effective worm-destroying medicines.
There are several other species of this genus to be met with, especially
near the coast, but they are not sufficiently common to be admitted
here. *

2. BETA, Taarnef, Beet.
[Celtic, BeU, red ; or from its fruit resembling the Greek letter B (Beta).]

Calyx urceolate, 5-cleft, finally indurated at base — the lobes remaining
unchanged. Ovary depressed ; stigmas 2. Utricle immersed in the base
of the calyx and covered by the lobes. Seed horizontal. Herbaceous,
with a large fleshy root formed of concentric zones. Flowers glome-
rate in spikes or paniculate racemes.
1. B. vulga'ris, L. Smoothish ; greenish purple ; lower leaves ovate-
oblong, wavy ; upper ones lance-ovate ; flowers in dense sessile axillary
clusters, interruptedly spicate. '

Common Beta. Beet. (>arden-beet. Sugar-beet.
Fr, Bette-rave. Germ. Gtemeiner Mangold. Span, Ac6lga.
Root biennial, fleshy, large (often 3-4 inches in diameter and more than a foot long),
terete, tapering downwards, deep purple or yellowish — exhibiting, on a transverse section,
concentric layers, which seem to have some relation to the number and size or vigor of



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GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.
