CATALOGUE. 
297 
rather dense, greenish ; bracts leafy, lanceolate, acute ; sepal narrow-lance- 
olate, white-membranous ; utricle slightly rough, marked by three elevated 
longitudinal lines, acutish, green or purplish ; seed h" long, compressed, ob- 
scurely punctate, dark and shining.— California, (1930 Hartweg.) Near Car- 
son and Empire Cities, Nevada, (90 Anderson and 457 Torrey.) 
NiTROPHiLA^ occiDENTALis. {Banalia, Moq. DC. Prodr. 13. 2. 279.) 
Glabrous ; stems herbaceous from a perennial running root-stock, ascending 
or decumbent, 3-8' long, dilTusely branched, angular, jointed ; lowermost 
leaves broadly ovate or oblong, amplexicaul, 2-3" long, the remainder Hnear, 
6-12" long, semi-terete, acuminate-mucronate ; bracts shorter but similar, 
mostly twice longer than the flowers; flowers 1-3 in each axil, the lateral 
ones frequently short-pedicelled, 2-3-bracted, the central one sessile and 
often bractless ; sepals 1" long, white and pctaluid, erect, exceeding the sta- 
mens and style ; branches of the persistent style divergent ; utricle globose, 
brown ; seed h" in diameter, black and shining, the margin obtuse. — Col- 
lected by Nuttall in Oregon, by Wilkes on the Lower Sacramento, by Cooper 
in the Providence Mountains, Southern California, and by Stretch in South- 
western Nevada. Near hot springs and in alkahne soils in the valleys of 
Western Nevada ; June, in flower ; September, in fruit. (1,005.) 
Alternanthera ^ LANUGINOSA, Torr. Bot, Mex. Bound. 180. (A. 
lanuginosa, Moq., DC. Prodr. 13. 2. 359, in part.) Annual, prostrate, diffuse, 
densely woolly when young with verticillate branched white hairs, becoming 
nearly smooth ; stems 1° long, not jointed; leaves somewhat in threes, en- 
tire, thick, obovate, rounded or rhomboidal, 3-10" long, exceeding the peti- 
1 NITROPHILA. ( Banalia § Idiopsis, Moq.) FloTvers perfect, mostly 2-bracteate, l-:5 in each axil, 
sessile or short-pedicelled. Sepals 5, (rarely 6 or 7,) distinct, oblong, carinate-concave, pointless, persist- 
ent. Petals and starainodia none. Stamens as many as the sepals, united at base into a very slu.rt per- 
igynons disk; anthers 2-celled, short-oblon-, deeply cordate at base. Styles united to the innldlc. 
Ovary 1-ovnled. Utricle included within the connivent sepals, in.l. hiseent, l-seeded. Seed vertical, 
pendulous from a slender erect funiculus, lenticular ; testa ernstacous. Embryo annular, slender, 
nearly surrounding the copious mealy albumen ; radicle inferior.-A low perennial branching salmo herb, 
with fleshy opposite estipulate mostly semi-terete leaves, and axillary flowers. 
The single species upon which this g, nns is founded was referred by Moqnin doubt ing1y to his 
Banalia, the two other species of which (from India and Brazil) are annuals with Hat dilat.-.l alternate 
leaves, the 3-bracted clustered flowers in panicles or spikes, the stamens united at base into a cup. the 
stems jointless. It is much like a Sderanthm in habit, and seems to be nu.st nearly iiUb'd to Polyninuum. 
2 ALTEUXANTllKKA, M.sin'. Flowers perfect or rarely dicecious, :5-bracted. Sepals 5. Stamens 
.^>. connate at base into a short cup; filaments tiliiorm ; the intermediate staminodia very minute and 
nsuallv entire; anthers 1-eelled. Ovary l-celled, 1-ovnled. Style sliort : sti-ma capitate or t> l..l,ed. 
Utricle ovate. Seed vertical, sublenticular ; the testa snbcn.stacenus. Embryo annular, peripherical ; 
radicle superior.— Herbs or rarely .shrubs, often jointed, usnally fuK'ly vilhnis : leaves oi.posite : flow- 
ers usually in terminal or axillary heads, at length deciduous. Two species occur in Fl-.ri.la. 
38 
