CHENOPODIACEAE. 



117 



separate or united by their bases; a rudimentary ovary sometimes present. 

 Pistillate flowers subtended by 2 bractlets which enlarge in fruit and are more 

 or less united, sometimes quite to their summits; perianth none; stigmas 2. 

 Utricle completely or partially enclosed by the fruiting bractlets. Seed vertical 

 or rarely horizontal; embryo annular; endosperm mealy. [From a Greek name 

 of orache.] About 130 species, of very wide geographic distribution. Type 

 species: Atriplex Tiortensis L. 



1. Atriplex arenaria Nutt. 

 SEA-BEACH ATRIPLEX. (Fig. 136.) 

 Annual, pale, densely silvery- 

 scurfy; stem bushy-branched, 4' 15' 

 high, the branches ascending or 

 decumbent, angular ; leaves oblong, 

 entire, short-petioled or sessile, \'- 

 2' long, the lateral veins few and 

 obscure ; flowers in axillary clus- 

 ters much shorter than the leaves ; 

 fruiting bractlets triangular wedge- 

 shaped, broadest above, 2"-3" 

 wide, united nearly to the several- 

 toothed summits, their margins en- 

 tire, their sides reticulated, or 

 sometimes crested or tubercled. 

 [A. cristata of Lefroy and of 

 Hemsley; ?Blitum maritimum of 

 Eeade and of H. B. Small.] 



In salt marshes, not abundant, 

 and recorded by Lefroy as found 

 along the North Shores. Native. 

 Eastern United States, Bahamas, 

 Cuba. Transported to Bermuda by 

 floating. Flowers from spring to autumn. 



Atriplex horte'nsis L., GARDEN ORACHE, Tartarian, grown as a substitute 

 for spinach in many countries, was seen at the Agricultural Station in 1913. 

 It has succulent ovate-lanceolate leaves 2i'-4' long, and flowers in large 

 panicles, the broadly ovate, veiny, subcordate bracts about 5" broad. 



3. SALICORNIA L. 



Fleshy glabrous herbs, with opposite terete branches, the leaves reduced to 

 mere opposite scales, the flowers sunken 3-7 together in the axils of the upper 

 ones, forming narrow terminal spikes, perfect or the lateral ones staminate. 

 Calyx obpyramidal or rhomboid, fleshy, 3-4-toothed or truncate, becoming 

 spongy, in fruit deciduous. Stamens 2, or sometimes solitary, exserted ; fila- 

 ments cylindric, short ; anthers oblong, large ; ovary ovoid ; styles or stigmas 2. 

 Utricle enclosed by the spongy fruiting calyx, the pericarp membranous. Seed 

 erect, compressed; embryo conduplicate ; endosperm none. [Name Greek, salt- 

 horn; from the saline habitat, and horn-like branches.] About 10 species, 

 natives of saline soil, widely distributed in both the Old World and the New. 

 Type species: Salicornia europaea L 



