Spinacia
(from spina, a prickle; alluding to the prickly processes of the fruit). Spinach. ORD. Chenopodiaceae. A small genus (four species) of hardy, annual, erect, glabrous herbs, natives of the Orient. Flowers dioecious, very rarely hermaphrodite, glomerate; male glomerules in terminal, interrupted spikes, females often axillary. Leaves alternate, petiolate, triangular-ovate or hastate, entire or sinuate-toothed, S. oleracea, a valuable herb, is the only species calling for description here. For culture, &c., see Spinach. S. oleracea (culinary). fl., males green, growing in long, terminal spikes; females axillary, sessile, clustered. June. Seeds in some varieties prickly, in others smooth. l. large, thick, succulent, somewhat triangular, deep green, on long petioles. Stem erect, large, round, hollow, about 2ft. high. 1568. The varieties glabra and spinosa represent the ROUND and PRICKLY SEEDED varieties.