in botany, a genus of the pentandra digynia class. The calyx consists of five leaves; it has no corolla; and there is but one lenticular seed. There are 18 species, 13 of which are natives of Britain, viz., the bonus hericus, common English mercury, or all-good; the urbicum, or upright blite; the rubrum, or sharp leaved goose foot; the murale, common goose-foot, or fow-bane; the hybridum, or maple-leaved blite; the album, or common orache; the viride, or green blite; the ferotinum, or late-flowered blite; the glaucum, or oak leaved blite; the vulvaria, or stinking orache; the polyspermum, round-leaved blite, or all seed; the maritimum, sea blite, or white glasswort; and the fruticosum, shrub stone-crop, or glaswort. The leaves of the vulvaria, or stinking orache, are said to be an excellent anti hysterick.