POLYGAMIA^MONOECI A. Atriplex. 26 1 



tire, or more or less toothed and jagged, turning black in dry- 

 ing, from the abundance of alkaline or marine salt which they 

 contain ; the under side, like the young branches, mealy, or 

 hoary. Spikes erect, obtuse, interrupted, beset with small 

 leaves in the lower part* Fl. numerous, in little dense heads ; 

 those furnished with stamens having scarcely any rudiments of 

 a germen. Valves of the seed-bearing cabjx ovate, acute, deeply 

 sinuated at the margin ; the disk covered with large, prominent, 

 sharp tubercles. Seed rather pointed, compressed. 

 What gives a spiral appearance to the seed of this and other species 

 of Atriplex, as described in FL Br. or Engl. Bat., is the con- 

 voluted form of the embryo, surrounding the cotyledons, which 

 are themselves flat and straight. 



7. A. pedunculata. Stalked Sea Orache. 



Stem herbaceous, zigzag, with spreading branches. Leaves 

 obovale, entire. Seed-bearing flowers stalked, wedge- 

 shaped. 



A. pedunculata. Linn. Sp.Pl. 167^. fVilld.v.4.966. FL Br. 1005. 

 Engl. Bot. v.A. t. 232. Dicks. H. Sicc.fasc. 6. 7. 



A. marina, semine lato. How Phyt. 13. RaiiSyn. 153. 



A. maritima, Halimus dicta, erecta, semine folliculis membranaceis 

 bivalvibus, in latitudinem porrectis, et utrinque rccurvis, longo 

 pedunculo insidentibus, clauso. Pink. Almag. 61. PJu/t.t.36. 



J- '• 



Ceratocarpus salinus. Pallas's Travels, v. 1 . 291. 



Heart Sea Purslain. Petiv. H. Brit. t.J.f.S. 



/3. Atriplex maritima nostras, Ocimi minoris folio. Rail Syn. 153. 



On the sea coast, in muddy ])laces, salt marshes, &c. 



Near Boston and Lynn. Plukenet. Plentifully in the isle of Thanet, 

 near the ferry. J. Shernrd. On the east bank of the Ouse, just 

 below Lynn, 1778 j also at Yarmouth. 



Annual. August, September. 



Root taj)cring. Herb greyish, all over scaly ; tawny in decay. 

 Stem erect, or reclining, from three to twelve inches high, com- 

 monly branched and bushy, zigzag, leafy, angular. Leaves 

 alternate, obovate, obtuse, entire, leathery or fleshy, tapering 

 down into short footstalks. The J/ owe rs with stamens have no 

 traces of a pistil ; the fertile ones, intermixed with them, and 

 at first likewise sessile, are subsequently elevated on simple 

 stalks, half an inch, or near an inch, long, becoming enlarged, 

 wedge-shaped, compressed, with two blunt spreading lobes, and 

 enclosing a flat orbicular seed. In this ntate the plant is easily 

 r».*cognized. 



The small variety, /3, more dwarfish and depressed, is less uncom- 

 mon on our eastern coast than the more flourishing and luxuriant 

 state of the plant. 



