SALTBUSH FAMILY 



441 



those of the vegetative branches 4 to 7 or 10 lines long, deciduous during 

 the high heat period, those of the fruiting branches very small (1 to 4 lines 

 long), with smaller ones fascicled in the axils; flowers in close naked panieled 

 spikes ; fruiting bracts roundish, united about 1/3, 1 to 2 lines broad, commonly- 

 broader than long, laciniately or unequally toothed, the sides with 2 or more 

 slender spreading teeth or tubercular crests or sometimes quite smooth. 



Desert bottoms and flats and river benches: Colorado and Mohave deserts; 

 north to Inyo Co.; San Joaquin Valley; Arizona. Fl. June; fr. Sept.-Oct. 



Locs. — Calexico, Parish 8261; Mecca, Parish 8262; Whipple Mts., Jepson 5215; Barstow, 

 Jepson 4800, 5173; Owens Lake, Jepson 5104; Alabama Hills, Jepson 918; Bakersfield, Davy 

 2137, 2402, 2884; Los Baiios, Grinnell. 



Eefs. — Atriplex poltcarpa Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 117 (1874); Merriam, N. Am. 

 Fauna, 7: 325 (1893). OUone polycarpa Torr. in Emory, Mil. Eeconn. 150 (1848), type loc. 

 Williams River, Ariz. 



26. A. nuttallii Wats. Nuttall Saltbush. Diffuse shrub 1 to 2 feet high ; 

 leaves obovate to oblong or linear, entire, narrowed to a short petiole or sessile, 

 1 to 2 inches long; flowers in sparingly naked panieled spikes; fruiting bracts 

 ovate, convex, united except at apex, 2 to 5 lines long, sessile or raised on a 

 pedicel 2 lines long, the margin commonly 3-toothed at apex, the middle tooth 

 often largest and the lateral small or wanting, the sides irregularly and often 

 copiously tooth-crested. 



Honey Lake Valley, Lassen Co., Davy; east to the Rocky Mts. 



Kef. — Atriplex nuttallii Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 116 (1874), type west American. 



27. A. linearis "Wats. Shrub, more woody than A. nuttallii; leaves linear 

 or narrowed towards the base, i/o to li/o inches long; staminate flowers in 

 small globose clusters, in simple or panieled spikes, leafy below; pistillate 

 flowers solitary or few together in similar spikes, more leafy; fruiting bracts 

 lanceolate or ovate. 2 to 4 lines long, prolonged al)ove into a narrow tip, the 

 sides irregularly tuberculate or crested and developing 4 deeply toothed wings. 



Colorado Desert; south into Mexico. 



Locs. — Durmid, Parish 8073. Referred here provisionally are plants of the Argus Mts., 

 Inyo Co., Furpus 5409, or these may belong to A. aptera Nelso'n (Bot. Gaz. 34: 356, — 1902, type 

 loc. Laramie). 



Proc. Am. Acad. 24: 



Refs. — Atriplex linearis Wats. 

 Sonora, Palmer 120, 121, 235. 



(1889), type loc. Guaymas, 



28. A. canescens James. Shad-Scale. 

 (Fig. 85.) Roundish gray shrub 1 to 5 feet 

 high; leaves linear, entire, narrowed at base, 

 % to 11/4 inches long, finely scurfy-canescent ; 

 flowers mostly dioecious in elongated narrow 

 spike-like panicles, very dense in fruit; fruit- 

 ing bracts forming a thick hard body 2 to 4 

 lines long, tipped at apex with 2 lanceolate 

 teeth 1 line long and laterally margined by 4 

 roundish very conspicuous wings 3 to 6 lines 

 long and 2 to 4 lines broad ; wings decurrent 

 at base on the pedicel and overtopping the free 

 Fig. 85. Atriplex canescens James; j^,. ^j^g margin irregularlv dentate or lacin- 

 fruitmg bracts, x 4. . ' ^ o . 



^ late. 



Desert flats or washes, Mohave and Colorado deserts west to San Bernardino 

 and San Diego ; east to Nevada and Dakota and south into Mexico. 



Locs. — San Diego. Palmer; Imperial, Parish 8259; San Bernardino. Parish; Barstow, 

 Jepson 5171; Argus Mts., Ball rf- Chanclhr, 7067; Owens Lake, Jepson 5105; Colorado River 

 near Williams Fork, Jepson 5225; 



Holtville, Parish 8077. 



