Chenopodiatrum album, Linn.

George Bentham & Ferdinand Mueller, 1870, Chenopodium & Dysphania, Flora Australiensis, London: L. Reeve & Co., pp. 157-165 : -1

3. C. album, Linn. ; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 70.

A tough annual usually erect, 1 to 2 ft. high, of a pale green or more or less mealy- white, especially the flowers and the under side of the leaves. Leaves petiolate, the lower ones ovate or rhomboidal, more or less sinuate-toothed or angular, the upper ones usually narrow and entire. Clusters of flowers in short dense or interrupted spikes, simple or slightly branched, the lower ones axillary, the upper ones or sometimes nearly 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.