A. HORTENSIS. 247 



1. ATRIPLEX HORTENSIS Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1053, 1753. Plate 36. Gabdenscale; 



Garden Orache. 



Mostly erect but often half-decumbent coarse annual herb, 5 to 20 dm. high, widely 

 branched from the base, the upper twigs ascending; branches slender or stout, strongly 

 angled, lightly furfuraceous when young but soon glabrous and green, the old bark white; 

 leaves alternate except the lower, petioled, ovate varying to somewhat triangular and 

 to lance-oblong, truncate, cordate or subhastate at base, or the upper slightly rounded 

 to the petiole, obtuse at apex, 4 to 12 or rarely 20 cm. long, 3.5 to 9 cm. wide, the margins 

 entire to sinuate-dentate, rather thin, farinose when young, bright-green and usually 

 glabrous in age (all densely whitish furfuraceous beneath in minor variation 5, A. sagit- 

 tata Borkhausen); flowers monoecious, spicate along the branches of an elongated ter- 

 minal panicle, the staminate and pistillate flowers somewhat mixed in the inflorescence 

 but the former often also in pure terminal spikes; perianth 3- to 5-lobed, wanting in most 

 of the pistillate flowers (the fruit then vertical, but horizontal when the perianth is pres- 

 ent); fruiting bracts short-pedicellate, strongly compressed, united only at the base, 

 nearly orbicular or rounded-ovate, always slightly narrowed above, becoming char- 

 taceous, 8 to 18 mm. long, nearly as wide, the broad, thin margins entire or obscurely 

 denticulate, the faces smooth but strongly reticulate-veiny; seed 2 to 4 mm. long and 

 brown, or only 1.5 mm. long and black when horizontal; radicle inferior. 



Apparently of garden origin, but perhaps native in central Asia (see further under 

 Relationships), introduced in many widely separated parts of the United States and 

 Cuba. Type locality, Siberia. Collections: South Boston, Massachusetts, 1878, Faxon 

 (Or); ballast grounds. Cowans, Long Island, New York, September 17, 1879, Brown 

 (NY, form is A. sagitiata Borkhausen) ; Jersey City, New Jersey, 1878, Brown (NY, same 

 form) ; Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba, van Hermann 789 (NY) ; Naperville, Illinois, August 

 3, 1895, Umbach (US); Benson County, North Dakota, August 4, 1890, Lunnell (US); 

 Bozeman, Montana, September 5, 1901, W. W. Jones (Gr, UC, US); Boulder, Colorado, 

 Osterhout 2421 (NY) ; Ephraim, Utah, Tidestrom 548 (US) ; Salmon, eastern Idaho, Hall 

 11564 (UC); Ontario, southeastern Oregon, Griffiths 913 (NY, US). 



MINOR VARIATIONS AND SYNONYMS. 



A considerable number of forms have been described in Europe and Asia, mostly as varieties. Only the 

 following seem to apply to American plants. The color, used to distinguish some of these, appears to be a 

 fluctuating character as far as American plants are concerned, but in Europe some color forms apparently are 

 fixed (according to Miller, Card. Diet., ed. 8, 1768, as quoted by Moss, Cambr. Brit. Fl. 2 : 169, 1914). Perhaps 

 these permanent races have not been introduced into this country. 



1. A. HORTENSIS MicROSPERMA Moquin, Chenop. Enum. 52, 1840, consists of plants with small fruits, the 

 bracts and leaves green. 



2. A. HORTENSIS OBTUsiFOLiA Moquin, in DeCandoUe, Prodr. 13': 91, 1849, is the common green form, with 

 very obtuse leaves and large bracts. 



3. A. HORTENSIS RUBRA Linnacus, Sp. PI. 1053, 1753, has leaves and bracts becoming reddish. Specimens 

 from Golden, Colorado, and especially the collection from Idaho cited above, have reddish bracts, and other 

 American collections exhibit tendencies in this direction. 



4. A. NiTENS Schkuhr, Handb. 3:541, 1803.— This is the name usually applied to the earlier A. sagUiata 

 Borkhau.scn (No. 5 of this list). The taxonomic equivalence is indicated by Schkuhr's citation of sagitiata as 

 a synonym. Schkuhr also cites an A. viridis Ehrhart, but this doubtless refers to Ehrhart's erroneous identifi- 

 cation of the plant with A. viridis Crantz, that is, Chenopodium aibum Linnaeus. 



5. A. SAGiTTATA Borkhausen, Rhein. Mag. 477, 1793.— The oldest name for the form which commonly passes 

 in Europe as A. niiens. It has been sparingly introduced into America, as indicated among the above citations. 

 The characters differ from those of hortensis only in the more shining upper surface of the leaves and a rather 

 persistent furfuraceous coating on the under surface. Borkhausen described the leaves as shining green above 

 and bluish-green beneath. He also indicated some leaf and habit characters which are now well known to be 

 much too variable for use. The size of the seed has been used by others to distinguish between hortensis and 

 sagiUata, the seed of the former being given as about 2 mm. long, and of the latt«r as 3 to 3.5 mm., but seeds of 

 undoubted hortensis from France are as much as 4 mm. long (borders of fields in the Maures, September 23, 

 1859, Huet, Gr. Hb.). If retained as a subspecies or variety, the name niiens is suggested as the more distinctive 

 and at the same time more in accordance with usage when this variant is treated as a species. 



