BATIDACEAE. 123 



4. A. deflexus L. Glabrous, purplish-green, somewhat succu- 

 lent; stem usually much branched, erect, stout or slender, 3-9 dm. 

 high; leaves ovate to oval, obtuse to emarginate at apex, mostly 

 narrowed at the base, 3-7 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide; petioles slender, 

 often as long as the blades or the lower longer; flowers polygamous, 

 in dense mostly short and thick terminal spikes and capitate in the 

 axils; bracts shorter than the 2-3 oblong or spatulate sepals; utricle 

 fleshy, 3-5-nerved, smooth, indehiscent, rather shorter than the 



Redondo, Greata. A ballast plant introduced from tropical 

 America. 



2. ALTERNANTHERA Forsk. 



Annual or perennial branching herbs, with opposite 

 (at least the lower) entire leaves and perfect or dioecious 

 flowers, in panicles or heads, 3-bracted. Sepals 5. Sta- 

 mens 5, united into a short cup at base; sterile fila- 

 ments minute, tooth-like; anthers 1 -celled. Style short; 

 stigma capitate or 2-lobed. Seed vertical, lenticular. 



1. A. achyrantha R. Br. Stem prostrate, pubescent; 1-3 dm, 

 long; leaves smoothish, oval or obovate, narrowed into a petiole; 

 heads mostly axillary, solitary or clustered, dense, oval, white; sepals 

 lanceolate, spine-pointed, woolly with barbed hairs on the back, the 

 2 inner ones much smaller; sterile filaments subulate, equaling the 

 fertile ones. 



Streets of Los Angeles, Davidson. Native of tropical America. 



Family 27. BATIDACEAE. Batis Family. 



A low maritime shrub, with opposite entire exstipu- 

 late leaves and dioecious bracteate flowers, in axillary 

 sessile ament-like spikes. Staminate flowers distinct. 

 Calyx campanulate, 2-lipped. Petals 4, rhombic-ovate, 

 clawed. Pistillate flowers 8-12, united into a fleshy 

 spike, without perianth. Ovaries coherent, 4-celled, 

 becoming a fleshy, ovoid-conical fruit; stigma sessile, 

 capitate. Seeds 1 in each cell, erect, oblong; testa mem- 

 branous; embryo slightly curved, caulicle inferior; endo- 

 sperm none. Represented by a single monotypic genus. 



1. BATIS L. 

 Characters of the family. 



1. B. maritima L, Glabrous, stems branched, prostrate, 9-14 

 dm. long, the short flowering branches erect; leaves linear to ovate- 



