120 CHENOPODIACEAE. 



erect, nearly or quite simple, rather long-jointed, 7-15 cm. long, 

 pale green; scales broadly ovate, acute or obtuse; fruiting spikes 

 1.5-4 cm. long, broad as the branches; flowers about all equally 

 high and about equaling the joints. 



Very common in salt marshes along the coast. May-August. 



2. S. subterminalis Parish. Perennial from a tufted ligneous 

 spreading-prostrate caudex; the herbaceous stems widely spreading 

 or suberect, crowded or fascicled, 1-3 dm. high, internodes short; 

 the numerous branchlets slender, both members of each pair often 

 ascending on the same side ot the main stem, giving it a unilateral 

 appearance; spikes 1-3 cm. long, of few-several enlarged fertile 

 bracts (joints broader than long) and usually about as many slender 

 longer sterile ones; scales acute, becoming divaricate-alate; middle 

 flower united nearly or quite to the stigmas; fruit glabrous. 



Not common within our limits. Capistrano; Mesmer. Easily 

 distinguished from 5. amhigua by its much greener slender and 

 numerous branchlets. Common about San Diego. 



8. DONDIA Adans. 

 Fleshy annual or perennial herbs, sometimes suffrutes- 

 cent, with alternate narrowly linear thick or nearly 

 terete entire leaves and perfect or polygamous bracteo- 

 late flowers solitary or clustered in the upper axils. 

 Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, the segments sometimes keeled 

 or slightly winged in fruit, enclosing the utricle. Sta- 

 mens 5. Styles usually 2, short. Seed vertical or hori- 

 zontal; embryo coiled into a flat spiral. 



Suffrutescent perennials. 



Herbage glabrous; perianth cleft to the base. 1. D. moquini. 

 Herbage more or less pubescent; perianth cleft 

 to the middle. 

 Seeds less than 1 mm. broad. 2. D. muUifiora. 



Seeds nearly 2 mm. broad. 3. D. californica. 



Annual. 4. D. diffusa. 



1. D. moquini (Torr.) Nelson. Erect branched, rather bushy, 

 usually about 6 dm. high, somewhat woody at base, branches leafy, 

 smooth or somewhat tomentose; leaves linear, subterete, narrow at 

 base, 12-18 mm. long, acute, the floral similar; clusters mostly 7- 

 flowered; perianth deeply cleft, incurved or slightly cucullate; seed 

 vertical, 1.5 mm. broad, dark brown, finely tuberculate. {Suaeda 

 torreyana Wats.) 



Common in saline places. July-September. 



2. D. multiflora (Torr.) Heller. Somewhat shrubby, 6-10 dm. 

 high, with slender diffuse or divaricate leafy branches, more or less 

 tomentose; leaves numerous, small, 1 cm. long or less, oblong, narrow 

 at base, obtuse or acute; flowers solitary or clustered, shortly lobed, 

 small; seed mostly vertical, less than 1 mm. broad, obscurely tubercu- 

 late. (Suaeda suffrutescens Wats.) 



In saline places in the interior and occasional along the coast. 



