6. Suaeda conferta (Small) I. M. Johnst. 



Perennial shrub; stems erect or ascending^ 4-10 dm. long, the branches pros- 

 trate or spreading, forming dense tufts, very brittle, glabrous; leaves numerous, 

 glabrous, the blades fleshy and blue-gray, mostly less than 1 cm. long and 1-2 mm. 

 broad, oblong; flowers solitary or clustered in the axils of the rather approximate 

 leaves, especially numerous on the branchlets; perianth segments obtuse; seed 

 about 1 mm. broad. 



Along the sea coast, in wettish places, Tex. and e. Mex.; W.I. 



9. Suckleya Gray 

 A monotypic genus of southwestern United States. 

 1. Suckleya suckleyana (Torr.) Rydb. Poison suckleya. 



Annual succulent herb; stems stout, terete, diffusely branched, 2-4 dm. long, 

 prostrate or ascending, sparingly scurfy-mealy or glabrate; leaves alternate, with 

 petioles equaling or exceeding the blades; blades orbicular to rhombic-ovate, 1-3 

 cm. long, rounded at the apex, abruptly short-cuneate at the base, repand-dentate 

 with short triangular acute or obtuse teeth, sparsely furfuraceous when young, 

 soon glabrate; male and female flowers on same plant, in dense clusters in the 

 axils of nearly all the leaves; staminate flowers in upper axils, without bracts 

 or bractlets; perianth subglobose, membranaceous, 3- or 4-parted, 2 of the seg- 

 ments larger than the others, spatulate, not appendaged; stamens 3 or 4, their 

 short filaments broad and flattened; pistillate flowers bibracteate; bracts condupli- 

 cate, ovate-rhombic and subhastate, obcompressed, carinate, connate below the 

 middle, in fruit narrowly winged dorsally, the wings crenulate, glabrous or nearly 

 so; with 2 short filiform stigmas; utricle enclosed by the bracts, compressed, the 

 pericarp thinly membranaceous, free; seed ovate, compressed, orbicular, filling the 

 cavity, 3 mm. long, reddish-brown; embryo hippocrepiform or subannular, sur- 

 rounding the copious endosperm; radicle superior. 



Valleys, along streams and about playa lakes and on edge of ponds, Mont, and 

 Colo, to Tex.; July-Aug. 



Known to cause cyanide poisoning in livestock. 



10. Atriplex L. Saltbush 



Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs; stems usually furfuraceous; leaves alter- 

 nate or opposite, sessile or petioled, entire, dentate to serrate or irregularly lobed 

 or cleft; flowers solitary or clustered, axillary or in terminal spikes or panicles; 

 staminate and pistillate flowers on the same or separate plants, either mixed in 

 the inflorescence or the staminate flowers in axillary glomerules superior to or 

 terminal to the pistillate axillary glomerules; staminate flowers ebracteate, with a 

 3- to 5-parted perianth, the obtuse segments oblong or obovate; stamens 3 to 5, 

 inserted on the perianth base, the filaments united at the base or distinct, the 

 anthers 2-celled; rudimentary ovary conical or lacking; pistillate flowers each sub- 

 tended by 2 bracts which enclose the fruit, distinct or united, fleshy, spongy or 

 ligneous, the margins entire or variously indented, the backs smooth or variously 

 appendaged, the perianth none or rarely of 1 to 5 squamellae or a 3- to 5-lobed 

 membranaceous perianth, the stamens absent; ovary ovoid or depressed-globose; 

 stigmas 2, subfiliform but thickened or compressed near the connate base; ovule 

 either oblique or erect and with a short funiculus, or inverted and suspended from 

 the end of an elongated funiculus; utricle with a membranaceous pericarp, this 

 usually free from the seed; seed erect or inverted, rarely horizontal, the coats 

 membranaceous to coriaceous or subcrustaceous; embryo annular around the fari- 

 naceous endosperm; radicle inferior, lateral or superior. 



849 



