GENUS 12. 



GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 



2 3 



i. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr. 

 Grease-wood. Fig. 1709. 



Batis (?) vermiculata Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 128. 

 1838. 



Sarcobatus vermicularis Torr. Emory's Rep. 150. 

 1848. 



Glabrous or the young foliage somewhat pu- 

 bescent, much branched, 2-io high, the branches 

 slightly angled, leafy, nearly white, some of 

 them leafless and spine-like. Stem i'-3' in diam- 

 eter ; wood yellow, very hard ; leaves obtuse or 

 subacute, \'-\\' long, i"-ij" wide, narrowed at 

 the base; spikes of staminate flowers i'-i' long, 

 ii"-2" in diameter, cylindric, short-peduncled or 

 sessile; wing of the calyx 4"-6" broad when ma- 

 ture, conspicuously veined. 



In dry alkaline and saline soil, western Nebraska, 

 Wyoming to Nevada and New Mexico. Wood used 

 for fuel, for want of better, in the regions where it 

 occurs. June-July. Fruit mature Sept.-Oct. 



13. DONDIA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 261. 1763. 



[SUAEDA Forsk. Fl. AEg. Arab. 69. pi. i8b. 1775.] 



Fleshy annual or perennial herbs, or low shrubs, with alternate narrowly linear thick or 

 nearly terete entire sessile leaves, and perfect or polygamous bracteolate flowers, solitary or 

 clustered in the upper axils. Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, the segments sometimes keeled or 

 even slightly winged in fruit, enclosing the utricle. Stamens 5. Styles usually 2, short. 

 Pericarp separating from the vertical or horizontal seed. Embryo coiled into a flat spiral. 

 Endosperm wanting or very little. [In honor of Jacopodi Dondi, Italian naturalist of the 

 fourteenth century.] 



About 50 species, of wide geographic distribution. Besides the following, some 6 others occur 

 in the western and southern parts of North America. Type species : Chenopodium altissimum L. 



Annuals of the Atlantic sea coast ; leaves not broadened at the base. 



Dark green, not glaucous; sepals acutely keeled; seed black. i. D. linearis. 



Light green, glaucous ; sepals scarcely keeled ; seed dark red. 2. D. maritime. 



Perennial of the western plains ; leaves broadened at the base. 3. D. depressa. 



i. Dondia linearis (Ell.) Heller. Tall 

 Sea-Blite. Fig. 1710. 



Salsola salsa var. americana Pers. Syn. i : 296. 



1805. 



Salsola linearis Ell. Bot. S. C. & G. i : 332. 1821. 

 Dondia linearis Heller, Cat. N. Am. PI. 69. 1900. 

 D. americana Britton, in Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. i : 



584. 1896. 

 Suaeda americana Fernald, Rhodora 9: 146. 1907. 



Annual, dark green or purplish green, not 

 glaucous, stem erect or procumbent, i-3 tall, 

 pale green or nearly white, branched, the 

 branches slender, very leafy, erect-ascending 

 or sometimes recurved, more or less secund. 

 Leaves of the stem linear-subulate, \'-\\' long, 

 those of the branches much shorter, somewhat 

 3-angled, lanceolate-subulate, widest just above 

 the base, the upper surface flat; sepals purple- 

 green, glaucous, all or some of them acutely 

 keeled or almost winged; seed orbicular, black, 

 shining, i" broad. 



On salt marshes, beaches, and along salt water 

 ditches. Nova Scotia to New Jersey and Texas. 

 Bahamas ; Cuba. Sea-goosefoot. Aug.-Sept. 



