CHENOPODIUM  , or

GOOSE-FOOT, a genus of erect or prostrate herbs (natural order Chenopodiaceae), usually growing on the seashore or on waste or cultivated ground . The green angular stem is often striped with white or red, and, like the leaves, often more or less covered with mealy hairs . The leaves are entire, lobed or toothed, often more or less deltoid or triangular in shape . The minute flowers are bisexual, and borne in dense axillary or terminal clusters or spikes . The fruit is a membranous one-seeded utricle often enclosed by the persistent calyx . Ten species occur in Britain, one of which, C . Bonus-Henricus, Good King Henry, is cultivated as a pot-herb, in lieu of asparagus, under the name mercury, and all-good .