16. Flowers unisexual, sometimes intermixed with a few hermaphrodite, of two kinds, the male and hermaphrodite with a 3-5-parted perianth and without bracteoles, the female without a perianth, but with 2 sometimes united or 2-parted bracteoles. Stamens 3-5. Leaves glabrous, mealy or cottony, usually hastate. [Tribe ATRIPLICEAE.] 17 Flowers hermaphrodite, sometimes intermixed with similar unisexual ones, all with 4-5 perianth-segments. 19 17. Bracteoles small, narrow, free, unchanged in the fruiting stage, not enclosing the fruit. Flowers monoecious. Stamens 5. Shrubs.--Species 2. South Africa and St. Helena. =Exomis= Fenzl Bracteoles large, broad, usually united and hardening, completely enclosing the fruit. 18 18. Bracteoles united nearly to the top, hardened in the fruit and sometimes prolonged into 2-4 prickles. Flowers dioecious. Stigmas 4-5. Stem and leaves glabrous. Herbs.--Species 1 (_S. oleracea_ L., spinach). Cultivated in the extra-tropical regions. It serves as a vegetable; the seeds are sometimes used for making bread. =Spinacia= L. Bracteoles free and herbaceous, or more or less united, but not nearly to the top, and at length hardened. Stigmas 2-3. Stem and leaves clothed, when young, with bladdery hairs, afterwards mostly with a close minute whitish pubescence.--Species 20. Some are used as vegetables, for making soda, in medicine, or as ornamental plants. “Orache.” (Including _Obione_ Gaertn.) =Atripex= L. 19. Ovary half-inferior. Perianth-segments connivent in the fruit. Fruit dehiscing by a lid. Herbs with a fleshy taproot. Bracteoles usually present.--Species 3. North Africa and Cape Verde Islands; one of them (_B. vulgaris_ L., beet) also cultivated in South Africa and Madagascar. The latter species yields sugar, vegetables, fodder, and a substitute for coffee and tobacco. [Tribe BETEAE.] =Beta= L. Ovary superior. Fruit indehiscent, rarely dehiscing by a lid, but then perianth-segments spreading in the fruit. 20 20. Flowers with bracteoles, solitary. Perianth membranous, unchanged in the fruit; segments erect. Stigmas 2. Ovule on a long funicle. Pericarp membranous. Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves subulate, rigid, pungent.--Species 1. North-West Africa (Algeria). [Tribe POLYCNEMEAE.] =Polycnemum= L. Flowers without bracteoles. 21 21. Perianth 4-5-lobed, membranous. Leaves narrow, clothed with thin hairs. [Tribe CAMPHOROSMEAE.] 22 Perianth 5-parted, rarely 4-parted or 5-lobed, more or less herbaceous. Leaves usually broad and clothed with bladdery hairs. 25 22. Perianth unequally 4-toothed, scarcely changed in the fruit. Stamens 4. Seed erect. Embryo horseshoe-shaped. Flowers in spikes. Undershrubs.--Species 1. North Africa. Used medicinally. =Camphorosma= L. Perianth 5-toothed, 5-lobed, or 5-cleft. Stamens 5. Seed nearly always horizontal. Embryo ring-shaped. Flowers solitary or in clusters, in the axils of the leaves. 23