CHENOPODIACEJE. (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 381 
and 3 — 5 stamens ; the pistillate without a calyx, consisting of an 
ovary with 2 partly united styles, placed between a pair of rhom¬ 
bic-ovate or halbert-shaped bracts which inclose the compressed 
fruit. Seed vertical (or horizontal) : the embryo curved into a 
complete ring around the albumen ; the radicle pointing down¬ 
ward. — Herbs mealy or silvery with bran-like scales, with trian¬ 
gular or halbert-shaped angled leaves, and spiked-clustered flow¬ 
ers. (Name said to be from a privative, and rpafaiv, to nourish , 
because the plants are unfit for food.) 
1* A. p&tula, L.? (Spreading Orache.) Annual, much 
branched, procumbent; leaves triangular-halbert-form, entire or sinu¬ 
ate-toothed, thickish, more or less scaly-dotted, the upper lanceolate; 
bracts rhombic, acute, united and often finely toothed at the base, the 
outer surface more or less armed with conical or awl-shaped points; 
stamens 4. (A. lacinikta, Pursh. A. Purshiana, Moquin.) — Salt 
marshes and brackish river-banks, New Jersey and northward. Aug., 
Sept. — Probably to be distinguished from the European A. patula. 
A. Halimus, A. hastA.ta, and A. horten sis, given by Pursh, 
&c., I have not seen in this country : but the latter is sometimes cul¬ 
tivated as a pot-herb. 
9. <)BIO.\E, Gaertn. Obione. 
Flowers monoecious or dioecious, nearly as in Atriplex, but the 
more or less united bracts often inflexed or indurated and pod-like, 
investing the fruit; the projecting radicle ascending! Herba¬ 
ceous or shrubby. (Origin of the name unknown, unless from 
the river Obi , in Siberia, whence the original species came.) 
1. O. arenaria, Moquin. (Sea-sand Orache.) Annual, 
silvery-mealy, diffusely spreading; leaves oblong, narrowed at the 
base, nearly sessile ; bracts of the fruit broadly wedge-shaped, flat, 
united, 2-3-toothed at the summit, and with a few prickly points on 
the sides. — Sea-beach, Long Island and New Jersey, thence south¬ 
ward. August. 
lO. ACNIDA, Mitchell. Water Hemp. 
Flowers dioecious, bractless. Sterile flowers with 5 membrana¬ 
ceous oblong sepals and 5 short stamens. Fertile flowers with 3 
acute sepals and a 3 - 5-angled ovary bearing 3-5 linear revolute 
stigmas. Fruit a 3 - 5-angled coriaceous achenium. Seed verti¬ 
cal, compressed. Embryo curved horseshoe-form nearly into a 
