SALTBUSH FAMILY 



445 



numerous, each pair often turned to one side, giving the stem a unilateral 

 appearance: spikes 1 to 2 inches long, of few to several enlarged broad flower- 

 bearing scales and terminated by about as many long slender sterile ones; 

 achene glabrous. 



Santa Monica to San Diego, east to Menifee and 

 Perris and north to Bakersfield. 



Refs. — Salicornia subtebmixalis Parish, Erytboa, 6: 

 87 (1898), type loc. western Biverside Co., Parish 1520, 

 4463; 1. c. 7: 92 (1899) ; Abrams, Fl. Los Ang. 130 (1904). 



3. S. europaea L. Erect compactly branching 

 annual 3 to 9 inches high ; spikes slender, 1 line 

 wide, mostly tapering toward tip, the joints much 

 longer than broad ; scales with blunt or very short- 

 ly acute tips ; middle flower much higher than the 

 lateral, shorter than the joints; fruiting calyx 

 with raised spongy margin about a central crest. 



Alkaline marshes, chiefly in the desert region : 

 San Diego; Tehachapi Valley, ace. CoviUe; Modoc 

 Co. ; Palo Alto. Atlantic coast ; Europe ; Asia. 



Eef. — Salicornia europaea L. Sp. PI. 3 (1753). S. 

 herbacea L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1 : 5 (1762); Parish, Erythea, 7: 

 91 (1899). 



4. S. mucronata Bigel. Habit of the preceding; 

 spikes thick-cylindric, 2i/o to 3 lines broad, not 

 tapering, the joints broader than long; scales with 

 acuminate points; middle flower half higher than 

 the lateral, occupying the whole joint ; fruiting 

 calyx with flatfish anterior face. 



San Diego ; east to the Atlantic. 



Refs. — Salicornia mucronata Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 2 

 (1824), type loc. e. Mass. S. bigelovii Torr. Bot. Mex. 

 Bound. 184 (1859). 



13. SARCOBATUS Nees. 

 Fig. 89. Salicornia ambigua Rigid and divaricately branched compact shrub 

 Michx.; flowering spikes, X 1. with somewhat thorny branches. Leaves alter- 

 nate, linear, sessile, entire. Flowers monoecious or 

 dioecious, without bracts. Staminate flowers in terminal catkin-like spikes 

 without calyx and with spirally arranged scales ; stamens 2 to 5 under a 

 stipitate peltate scale; filaments short. Pistillate flowers axillary and com- 



^-^^12::^ 



Fig. 90. S;UiC0BATUS VERMICULATUS Torr. a. staminate inflorescence, x 1 ; 6. pistillate inflor- 

 escence, X 1 ; c, fruit, x 4. 



