both sexes on same plant, solitary or in small clusters in the axils, the staminate 

 and pistillate flowers usually mixed in the same cluster or the staminate clusters 

 in terminal glomerules; fruiting bracts sessile, red, slightly succulent, rhomboidal, 

 acute, stipelike at the base, united for about one half, toothed at the lateral angles, 

 3-5 mm. long, smooth on the 3-nerved sides; seed 2 mm. long, dark-brown; 

 radicle lateral. 



On alkaline floodplains in w. Tex., N.M. (Dona Ana and Otero cos.) and Ariz. 

 (Graham, Maricopa, Cochise. Pima and Yuma cos.); nat. of Austral.; cult as a 

 forage plant and becoming spontaneous in Calif, and Ariz, to s. N.M. and Tex. 



The low-growing plant is a good soil-binder along irrigation ditches, it crowds 

 out undesirable weeds, and provides forage for domestic animals, primarily sheep. 



3. Atriplex hortensis L. French spinach, garden orache. 



Erect to somewhat decumbent monoecious annual, 6-25 dm. tall, freely 

 branched, somewhat farinose when young but usually glabrate, greenish; leaves 

 slender-petiolate, the lowest few opposite, all the upper ones alternate; blades 

 ovate-triangular to broadly lanceolate, obtuse, abruptly short-cuneate to cordate or 

 slightly hastate, entire to undulate or sinuately dentate, 5-20 cm. long, 3-10 cm. 

 wide; flowers in axillary or terminal panicles of mostly ebracteate spikes, the 

 staminate mixed with the pistillate or above them, with a deeply 5- or sometimes 

 3-lobed perianth; pistillate flowers dimorphic (some lacking subtending bractlets, 

 the perianth 3- to 5-lobed, the fruit flattened and the seed horizontal), the majority 

 naked but surrounded by 2 ovate to suborbicular strongly accrescent basally con- 

 nate bracts eventually 6-12 mm. wide with their margins entire to denticulate; 

 fruit short-stipitate, laterally compressed, with an erect seed about 2 mm. broad; 

 radicle inferior. 



On moist seepy grassy bank of pond, in N. M. (Taos Co.), July-Sept.; nat. of 

 Asia that is occasionally cult, as a potherb in the U. S. where it rarely escapes. 



4. Atriplex patula L. var. hastata (L.) Gray. Fig. 424. 



Annual herb; stems erect to decumbent or procumbent, 3-9 dm. long, usually 

 much-branched, the branches slender or stout, ascending or spreading, obtusely 

 angled, sparsely or densely furfuraceous when young, often glabrate, green or 

 stramineous; leaves usually opposite below, the others alternate, the petioles of 

 the lower leaves up to half as long as the blades, the upper leaves very short- 

 petioled; blades of the lower leaves broadly triangular to hastate or oval-hastate, 

 2.5-7 cm. long and nearly as broad, acute or obtuse at the apex, truncate at the 

 base or with a rounded sinus, the margins entire or more usually sinuate-dentate 

 or shallowly repand-dentate, the basal lobes acute, spreading or reflexed; blades 

 of the upper leaves hastate-oblong to lanceolate and smaller, all the blades thin 

 or succulent, bright-green or densely furfuraceous; flowers of both sexes usually 

 on same plant, in slender or stout dense or interrupted naked simple or broadly 

 paniculate spikes and usually also in axillary fascicles; staminate perianth usually 

 4-cleft; fruiting bracts sessile, rounded-deltoid or ovate-deltoid, 3-7 mm. long, 

 herbaceous, united only at the truncate or rounded base, often reddish in age, 

 acute, the margins denticulate or rarely entire, the sides usually short-tuberculate, 

 densely furfuraceous or glabrate; seed 1.5-2.5 mm. long, nearly black; radicle 

 inferior. 



Saline soils and salt marshes in rich soils, both coastal and inland, in w. Tex. 

 and Ariz. (Navajo and Coconino cos.), May-Nov.; Nfld. to S.C., O., Ind., 111., 

 Mo., w. to B.C., Ore. and Calif., s. to Tex.; Eur., Asia and N. Afr. 



5. Atriplex argentea Nutt. Silver saltbush. 



Annual herb; stems 15-60 cm. tall, erect, branched from the base, the plants 

 globoid in outline, the branches rather stout, angled, furfuraceous when young; 



851 



