CHENOPODIUM, ke-no-p8'dT-um, or GOOSEFO'OT, a genus of plants belonging to the family Chenopodiacece (q.v.), of which it is the type, and distinguished by its usually perfect flowers, having mostly five small green scales for the calyx, about five stamens, no co rolla and a fruit consisting of a membranous coat enclosing one black, flat and shining seed. A number of the species have received the name of goosefoots, from a fancied resemblance to the webbed foot of the goose. The best-known or more remarkable species are: 1. C. album (lamb's pigweed), a common annual, found in cultivated and also waste ground. It has a leafy angular stem, which, as well as the whole plant, is white mealy. The young plants are much used in North America as °greens.° 2. C. bonus-henricus (Good King Henry, or wild spinach), a perennial, in Europe not un common in country churchyards and places sel dom disturbed, sparingly naturalized in North America. It has bright green, broad, succulent leaves, which were in common use as spinach before the introduction of the present culti vated plant. The early shoots are sometimes
used as a substitute for asparagus.
3. C. quinoa, the quinoa of Peru, a perennial inhabiting the high table-land of the Cordilleras, where, at the conquest of the Spaniards, it was one of the important farinaceous grains used as food. It is still largely cultivated for its nutritious seeds, which are made into soup and bread, and, when fermented with millet, make a kind of beer. The plant is from four to six feet high and has many angular branches, dull glaucous leaves of a jagged triangular outline, on long narrow stalks, and flowers forming large compact branched heads and succeeded by minute strong flat seeds of a black, white or red color.
In medicine, Chenopodium, ambrosioides, is used very extensively as a remedy for the round worm as well as the tape-worm. The oil is the officinal part used, in doses of 5 to 15 drops, and it is a very efficient anthelmintic, particu larly for the round worm, Ascaris lumbrscoides.