258 GENUS ATRIPLEX. 



slightly above the normal position and thus becomes lateral. This appears to be the 

 beginning of a tendency which has culminated in the superior position common in most 

 species of the genus. 



ECOLOGY AND USES. 



Atriplex calif ornica sometimes forms pure socies of limited extent in saline marshes, 

 but it is usually associated with such dominants as Distichlis or Haplopappus, outside 

 the Salicornia zone. It occurs also on the more stable strand and dunes, and especially 

 in the saline valleys between inner dunes. It is unique in the genus in the development 

 of a slender fusiform root for storage. The flowers bloom during an exceptionally long 

 season, beginning in April and lasting to October. 



This species is of little value for grazing, owing to its small size, its halophytic char- 

 acter, and its lack of abundance. The roots are said by Greene (Pittonia 1:207, 1888) 

 to be sweet and well-flavored, but they are not used. Recent observations along the 

 coast of middle California indicate that they are exceedingly bitter, at least in some 

 cases. 



4. ATRIPLEX MARITIMA Hallier, Bot. Zeit. 21, beilag 1 : 10, 1863. Plate 38. 



Spreading or prostrate annual herb with stems 0.5 to 5 dm. long, branched from the 

 base; branches thick but weak and with a tendency to droop, scarcely angled, nearly 

 glabrous, stramineous, the bark smooth and persistent; leaves mostly alternate, the 

 lowest opposite, petioled, suborbicular to ovate or rhombic-ovate, cuneate at base, very 

 obtuse to acutish and mucronulate at apex, 2 to 4 cm. long, 1 to 2.5 cm. wide, irregularly 

 repand-dentate with mostly obtuse teeth or some of the upper ones nearly entire, rather 

 densely furfuraceous on both sides, soft; flowers monoecious, the staminate in small 

 glomerules in the upper axils and in short dense terminal spikes, these 1 cm. or less 

 long, the pistillate in axillary glomerules beneath the staminate, some of the interme- 

 diate glomerules with both staminate and pistillate flowers ; perianth 5-clef t, wanting in 

 the pistillate flowers; fruiting bracts sessile or subsessile, compressed, united to above 

 the middle, rhombic-hastate, widest at the middle, 6 to 9 mm. long, 6 to 9 mm. wide, 

 becoming hard and cartilaginous at least as to body, entire except at the angles, either 

 with a few strong flattened tubercles or these wanting, strongly 3-nerved and reticulate; 

 seed 3 to 4 mm. long, dull brown; radicle inferior, ascending. 



On sandy beaches of Quebec and New Brunswick; also on shores of northwestern 

 Europe. Type locality, England. Collections: Fox Island, New Brunswick, Blake 

 5692 (Gr); Grindstone Island, Magdalena Islands, Quebec, Fernald, Long, and St. 

 John 7397 (Gr, UC, not mature but probably of this species). Additional localities are 

 cited by Blake (Rhodora 17:86, 1915). 



MINOR VARIATIONS AND SYNONYMS. 



Little is known concerning the forms of this species in America, since it has been but little collected. A 

 number of varieties have been named in Europe. The complicated synonymy of the species is discussed by 

 Blake (1. c.) 



1. Atriplex arenaria Woods, Phytologist 3:593, 1849. — An older name for this species but antedated by 

 A. arenaria Nuttall. Although Nuttall's species is reduced in the present paper to a subspecies of A. pentandra, 

 Wood's name is not here taken up for maritima, as has been done by Ascherson and Graebner and other Euro- 

 pean botanists, because of its long use for the Nuttallian species. 



2. A. ROSEA var. arenaria Westerlund, Sver. Atr. 32, 1S61, and Linnaea 40:142, 1876. — An apparently 

 necessary reduction of A. maritima to its most closely related species. 



3. A. SABULOSA Rouy, Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 37:20, 1890.-^4. maritima. 



RELATIONSHIPS. 

 This is perhaps not more than a subspecies of A. rosea, since the differences are only 

 those of habit and the size of the bracts and seeds. However, it is so little known in 

 America that a decision as to its reduction may be left for the future, as this would 



