1915] Blake,— An Atriplex new to North America 85 
published, if tenable at all, are only so through reference to a previously 
published description; but the description of A. laciniata by Pursh,! 
copied by him from Willdenow;? is quite inapplicable to A. arenaria 
Nutt., although the range allotted to the plant by Pursh indicates 
that species.  Pursh's description runs thus: “A. caule erecto herba- 
ceo, foliis triangularibus profunde dentatis subtus albidis, calycibus 
The plant to which this 
39) 
fructus rhombeis trinerviis denticulatis. 
character applies is the true A. laciniata L., not known in America, 
although a near relative, A. rosea L., occurs as a rare ballast plant 
within the range assigned by Pursh. Atriplex laciniata L. was based 
by Linnaeus on several references, of which the only 
American is from Gronovius’s Flora Virginica. The 
Clayton plant on which Gronovius’s reference is 
based is apparently no longer in existence, neither 
Mr. A. J. Wilmott nor the writer having been able 
to discover it in a search through all the material 
of Atriplex in the British Museum. In any case 
Rafinesque’s name cannot be adopted for A. arena- 
ria Nutt., having been based on a published descrip- 
tion whose characters disagree with those of that Fig. 1. Atriplex 
species in nearly every point. pe Leaf 
X 1. 
Atriplex maritima is an interesting addition to the 
gradually increasing number of coastal and maritime species mainly 
of west European range which occur also on the northeast coast of 
North America. [t may be identified by the following description. 
ATRIPLEX MARITIMA E. Hallier, Bot. Zeit. xxi. Beilag [1] 10 (1863), 
as A. maritimum, not Crantz nor Pall.; A. arenaria Woods, not Nutt.; 
A. sabulosa Rouy. Prostrate annual, branched from 
the base, the branches sometimes 0.6 m. long; stem 
whitish, slightly grooved, lepidote-farinose, at length 
subglabrate; branches and branchlets subopposite 
; below, alternate above; leaves rhomboid-ovate, ob- 
Fig. 2. Atriplex f 
maritima. Fruit- tuse or subacute, mucronate, irregularly crenate- 
ing bract X 1. dentate above the cuneate base with about 6-10 tri- 
angular obtuse teeth, the lowest pair generally larger, 
permanently whitish-lepidote-farinose both sides, more densely so 
beneath, 1.5-3 cm. long, 1-1.9 em. wide, on unmargined whitish 
petioles 2-4 mm. long; flowers in clusters of 1-6 in the axils of nearly 
all the leaves, not forming spikes; fruiting calyx rhombic, broadly 
cuneate at base and apex, broadest at the middle, there with 1-3 low 
1 Pursh, Fl. i. 199 (1814). 2 Willd. Sp. iv. 963 (1806). 
