106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



* * Leaves small, numerous ; fruiting bracts more or less compressed, mostly 



small, cuneate-orbicular. 

 Tall ; spikes dense, panicled ; fruiting bracts compressed, 



toothed and usually tuberculate. Arizona .... 32. A. polycarpa. 

 Slender; fruiting bracts axillary or spicate, convex, 



toothed, usually crested ; lower leaves opposite. 



Arizona 2>Z. A. Greggii. 



Fruiting bracts axillary, orbicular, compressed, toothed, 



3-nerved, not appendaged ; leaves mostly opposite. 



Mexico 34. ^. oppositifolia. 



§ 9. Tall and shrubby; spikes panicled; fruiting bracts orbicular or ovate, 

 membranous or spongy, not appendaged nor margined ; leaves ovate 

 to rhombic, entire; radicle ascending (superior in No. 36). 



Bracts rounded, compressed, united to above the 



middle ; branches terete, unarmed. Arizona . . 35. A. lentiformis. 



Bracts rounded, compressed, free; branches angled, 



spinescent. Nevada 36. J.. Torreyi. 



Bracts broadly ovate, convex, united to the middle ; 



branches terete, unarmed. Southern California . . 37. A. Breweri. 



§ 10. Bracts thick, scurfy, with broad rounded entire margins, not appendaged 

 nor veined ; erect, shrubby. 



Bracts sessile ; leaves ovate to oblanceolate, entire, 



subsessile. Great Basin 38. A. confertifolia. 



Bracts shortly pedicelled; leaves rounded, sharply 



dentate, i^etioled. Arizona 39. J., hi/menelytra. 



§ 11. Shrubby ; fruiting bracts united, indurated, not appendaged, with four 

 broad membranous veined wings. 



Leaves narrow ; fruit 4-6" broad. Great Basin ... 40. A. canescens. 



Sect. I. Annuals, somewhat succuleut. Radicle inferior or some- 

 what ascending. Fruiting bracts herbaceous or coriaceous, free or 

 nearly so. Flowers androgynous, or subdicecious, in leafy or naked 

 spikes. 



§ 1. Bracts ovate-rhombic to triangular or hastate, often crested, 

 the margin foliaceous, entire or toothed : leaves usually more or 

 less hastate, the lowest opposite. 



1. A. PATULA, Linn. Erect or decumbent, 1-4 feet high, branched, 

 dark green and glabrous or somewhat scurfy ; leaves lanceolate-hastate, 

 1-4 inches long, the lower on the stems and branches opposite, obtuse 

 or acute, entire or sparingly sinuate-toothed, petioled, the upper lance- 

 olate to linear ; flowers in subdioecious naked and usually somewhat 

 interrupted sjiikes, the lower clusters axillaiy ; fruiting bracts ovate- 

 triangular or rhombic-hastate, compressed, united at base, becoming 3-6 

 lines long, obscurely 3-nerved, with a broad herbaceous entire«or toothed 



