170 SALSOLACE.T>. 



4. A. spicata, Wats. 1. c. Stoiit, erect, 1 — 2 ft. high, sparingly 

 branching, mealy : leaves alternate, rhombic-ovate, acute, coarsely and 

 irregularly sinuate-toothed, 2 in. long, attenuate to a short petiole : fl. 

 densely spicate, the 4-sepalous calyx usually stamiuate, but not rarely 

 pistillate and with a horizontal seed : bracts of pistillate fi. ovate, acute, 

 little enlarged in fruit, partly coherent at base l^s^ lines long : seed 

 black, ^ line broad ; radicle inferior. — Alkaline soil among the foothills 

 of the Mt. Diablo Eange, on Marsh's Creek, also near Livermore, and 

 on low plains of the Sacramento near Ohico ; a common weed in fields, 

 and one of several plants in which the supposed distinctions between 

 Alriplex and Chenopodium fail. 



* * Herbs or shrubs, seldom, succulent or mealy, but silvery-scurfy; bracts 



mostly rounded and more or less completely united, naked or variously 



appendaged or winged, frequently hard and nut-like in fruit. — 



Genus Obione, Gsertn. 



-1— Mona:cious annuals. 



5. A. arg-entea, Nutt. Gen. i. 198 (1818) ; Moq. Chenop. Enum. 76 

 (1840), under Obione. Stout, erect, 3^' — 1% ft. high, diffusely branching, 

 the lower branches often decumbent ; herbage densely mealy-scurfy : 

 leaves alternate (except the lowest), triangular-hastate to rhombic-ovate, 

 acute or obtuse, 3^ — 2 in. long, mostly sessile : staminate fl. in terminal 

 spicate clusters, or in the upper axils ; calyx deeply 5-cleft : fertile fl. 

 short-pedicellate in axillary clusters ; bracts when mature 2 — 4 lines 

 long, rhombic-ovate, united, indurated and spongy, margined except at 

 base, bifid at apex, sharply and deeply toothed ; sides usually roughened 

 with irregular herbaceous projections or with a double toothed crest : 

 seed 1 line broad. — Eastern slope of the Sierra, from Sierra Co. south- 

 ward, in alkaline soils. 



6. A. nodosa, Greene, Pittonia, i. 40 (1887). Stout, branched from 

 the base, 1 ft. high, mealy and apparently scabrous : leaves broadly 

 rhomboid : fruit-clusters borne at the enlarged nodes of the widely and 

 irregularly branching stem : pedicels stout, thickened under the bracts ; 

 these united and forming an almost globose fruit 2 lines in diameter, 

 3-lobed at summit, the sides covered with lichenoid spongy projections. — 

 Near Antioch, ilfrs. Curran; unknown except in the fruiting state, but 

 remarkable for the nodose stem and branches, and the subglobose rough 

 fruits. 



7. A. expansa, Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 116 (1874). Erect, but with 

 many decumbent and widespread branches, these 1 — 2 ft. long ; herbage 

 silvery-scurfy and slightly mealy : leaves triangular and somewhat 

 hastate, acute, 1 in. long or more, sessile : flowering l^ranches leafy and 

 virgate ; staminate spikes slender, interrupted, naked above : fruiting 



