1. Bassia hyssopifolia (Pall.) O. Ktze. Fig. 422. 



Annual herb; stems erect, 2-5 dm. tall, much-branched from the base, tomen- 

 tose and villous, the branches terete or angulate; leaves alternate, numerous, 

 sessile, linear to oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, obtuse to acute, 1-4 cm. long, 

 often succulent, entire, reduced above, green or grayish-green, silky-villous to 

 appressed-pilose; spikes numerous, about 4 mm. in diameter; flowers perfect, 

 about 1 mm. broad; perianth 5-lobed, densely woolly, the teeth becoming pro- 

 longed into red hooked spines in the fruit; stamens 5, exserted, hypogynous; ovary 

 ovoid, attenuate to a short or elongate style, with 2 or 3 capillary stigmas, the 

 ovule subsessile; utricle with a transverse wing, enclosed in the perianth, mem- 

 branaceous or indurate at the apex, indehiscent, the pericarp free from the seed; 

 seed grayish-brown, dull, horizontal or nearly vertical; embryo annular, enclosing 

 the scanty endosperm; radicle centrifugal. Echinopsilon hyssopifolius (Pall.) Moq. 



Waste places, especially in wettish alkaline soils, established in irrigated regions, 

 in w. Tex., N.M. (general) and Ariz. (Maricopa, Navajo, Coconino, Mohave and 

 Yuma COS.), May-Sept.; nat. of Euras., introd. from w. Asia; Mass. to N. Y., 

 w. to Pac. States; Trans-Pecos Tex., s. N.M. and Ariz., to n. Max. 



7. Kochia Roth Summer-cypress 



Annual or perennial herbs or low shrubs, woody at the base; stems erect, 

 much-branched often to form pyramidal or rounded bushes, pubescent or rarely 

 glabrous; leaves alternate or opposite, linear, often terete, entire, fascicled; flowers 

 mostly perfect or some pistillate only, axillary, sessile, solitary or in small glome- 

 rules, without bracts; perianth herbaceous, 5-cleft, persistent over the fruit and 

 finally developing horizontal scarious or membranceous wings; stamens 3 to 5, 

 usually exserted, the filaments compressed; ovary subsessile, depressed, the stig- 

 mas 2 or rarely 3, the styles filiform; utricle depressed-globose, with membranace- 

 ous persistent pericarp which is free from the seed; seed horizontal; embryo 

 nearly annular, green; endosperm none 



Nearly 100 species, all but one native to the Old World. 



1. Annual herb; leaves petiolate, the thin blades lance-linear; calyx wings minute 

 1. K. scoparia. 



1. Perennial herb; leaves sessile, the succulent blades terete or nearly so; calyx 

 wings large and conspicuous 2. K. americana. 



1. Kochia scoparia (L.) Roth. Belvedere. Fig. 422A. 



Annual herb; stems erect, much-branched, the branches erect or ascending, 

 3-15 dm. tall, very leafy, glabrous or short-pilose, becoming bright-red with age; 

 leaves alternate, linear to linear-acute, 2-7 cm. long, 3-8 mm. broad, usually 

 prominently 3- to 5-veined, tapering at the base to a slender petiole, those of 

 the inflorescence smaller and without evident petioles, much-exceeding the small 

 flower clusters, sometimes pilose-sericeous; flowers sessile, clustered in the axils 

 of the leaflike but reduced bracts, forming short dense leafy spikes, pilose or glab- 

 rate in age; perianth 1.5-2 mm. broad, strongly winged horizontally, the triangular 

 wings obtuse and 0.6 mm. long or less, not nerved; seed 1.5 mm, in diameter. 

 K. alata Bates. 



A wasteland weed, in salt flats among Tamarix, rare in Tex., Okla., (Alfalfa 

 Co.) and Ariz. (Coconino Co.), May-Aug.; nat. of Eur.; escaped from cult, in 

 many parts of the U. S. 



Var. culta Farw. Mexican fire-bush. This is the most common form in cultiva- 

 tion; grown primarily for its globular dense habit and the foliage which turns 

 purplish-red in autum. Escaped from cult, in many areas of the U.S. 



Var. subvillosa Moq., a very hairy form, collected once in Ariz. 



845 



