86 • PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



2. SARCOBATUS, Nees. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious, without bracts, dimorphous. Stam- 

 inate flowers in close terminal aments, without perianth, the stamens 

 irregularly arranged around the bases of stipitate peltate scales : fila- 

 ments very short : anthers fleshy. Pistillate flowers solitary, axillary ; 

 the closed perianth compressed-ovate, adherent at the contracted some- 

 what 2 -lipped apex to the base of the stigmas, and margined laterally 

 by a narrow erect slightly 2-lobed border, which develops into a broad 

 membranous veined horizontal wing. Ovary thin and hyaline, nearly 

 filled by the ovule, the slender lateral style adherent to the inner wall 

 of the cavity and terminated by two thick exserted unequal stigmas. 

 Seed vertical, with a transparent membranous testa: embryo green; 

 radicle inferior. — A subspinescent rigidly branched alkaline shrub, 

 with alternate linear fleshy leaves. 



1. S. VER3IICULATUS, Torrey. Erect, 3-8 feet high, leafy, smooth 

 or at first puberulent ; leaves ^1|- inches long; male aments cylindri- 

 cal, ^-1 inch long, the scales rhomboid-ovate, acute, persistent, spirally 

 arranged ; stamens about 3 to each scale, soon deciduous ; fruiting 

 calyx coriaceous, 3 lines long, the winged margin 3-6 lines broad ; 

 pericarp distinguishable with difficulty; seed ^ line in diameter. — 

 From the Upper JNIissouri and Platte to the Gila and the western bor- 

 der of the Great Basin. One of the more frequent of the various kinds 

 of alkaline plants which are commonly known as " Grease-wood," and 

 sometimes very abundant. In the immature seed the embryo may be 

 only curved or annular. 



Batis (?) verm'icuhia. Hooker, FI. Bor.-Am. 2. 128. 



Sarcobatus Maximiliani. Nees in Reise Max. v. Wied, 1. 510 and Appx. 2. 

 247 ; Bot. Zeit. 2. 547. Seubert, Bot. Zeit. 2. 753, t. 7. Lindl. in Lond. 

 Jour. Bot. 4. 1. 



Fremontia vermicularis. Torrey in Frem. Rep. 95 and 317, t. 3; (Bot. Zeit. 

 5. 56 ; Lond. Jour. Bot. 4. 481) ; Emory's Rep. 411. Hook. PL Geyer in 

 Lond. Jour. Bot. 5. 262. 



Sarcobatus vermicularis. Torrey, Emory's Rep. 149 ; Sitgreave's Rep. 169 ; 

 Stansbury's Rep. 394 ; Pac. R. R. Rep. 4. 130 ; Bot. Wilkes's Exp. 439. 

 Engelraann, PI. Upp. Miss. 207. Cooper, Pac. R. R. Rep. 12. 17. Wat- 

 son, King's Rep. 5. 295. Coulter, Hayden's Rep., 1872, 779. Porter, Fl. 

 Colorado, 118. 



Collectors : — James ; 4 1 Fremont ; 242 Geyer ; Abert ; Emory ; Stans- 

 bury; Lyall; H. Engelmann ; 23 Stretch; 185 Parry; 1844 Brewer; 

 8392 Bolander; 464 Torrey; 490 Vasey; 1000 Watson; Gray; 265, 266 

 Wolf. 



