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A new Atriplex. 



By George E. Osterhout 



Growing in the saline soil of the elevated table-lands of Colo- 

 rado and Wyoming is a small shrubby Atriplex % which appears to 

 be undescribed, and to which I assign the name 



Atriplex fruticulosa. 



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A scurvy canescent decumbent shrubby perennial, 2—4 dm. in 

 length, the ends of the branches ascending and the annual growths 

 for the most part bearing the flowers and fruit. Leaves spatu- 

 late to oblanceolate, nearly sessile, obtuse or subacute at the 

 apex, narrowed from above the middle to the base, 3-6 mm. wide 

 by 1.5-3 cm. long, with many smaller leaves toward the base: 

 flowers dioecious, both kinds in capitate clusters from the axils of 

 the upper leaves : staminate branches often becoming spicate, and 

 the flowers often brown in color, about 10 in a cluster: pistillate 

 flowers green, and about 5 in a cluster ; bracts of the pistillate 

 flowers oblong, united to the top, 2 mm. wide by 3 mm. long ; 

 fruiting bracts oblong, 3-3.5 mm. wide by 5-6 mm. long, a little 

 broader at the top, rounded at the base, usually 3-toothed at the 

 apex, with the middle tooth largest ; the sides are smooth and 

 reticulated ; radicle pointing upward. 



j 



alkaline 



lake in southern Wyoming. Other plants which I collected in the 

 same locality and in North Park, Colo., in September, 1897, are 

 quite surely this species, but differ from the type in that the fruit- 

 ing bracts are irregular, and some of them more or less muricate. 



On examination it was found that few of them had perfected seed, 

 having suffered from the depredations of some insect, which prob- 

 ably accounts for the irregularity of the bracts. It was also col- 

 lected by Mr. P. A. Rydberg near Green River, Wyoming, in 

 July, 1895. I am indebted to Mr. Rydberg for comparing my 

 specimens with those in the herbarium of Columbia University. 



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