New Califoknian Atripi.ices, 



Bv Willis L. Jepson. 



The fertile plains of the Lower Sacramento Valley lying' 

 near the base of the first bordering wall of the Coast Range 

 would hardly be named as a promising locality in which to 

 search for new species of Atriplex. They are plants of the 

 sea-shore, of brackish marshes, of the alkaline valleys and 

 desert plains of southern California and the great interior. 

 The Sacramento Valley— a region two hundred miles long 

 and sixty wide— has only been credited in the volumes and 

 papers of systematic botany with one species of the genus. 



The outlook is not inviting on the scorched plains at the 

 season when these plants flourish; there is little to be seen 

 of native growth but dry grass, dead winter annuals and 

 bunches of Grindelia. But narrow strips of alkaline soil run 

 across the plains, and although covered for the most part by 

 deposits of rich soil from the adjacent mountain range, 

 patches of small extent appear every half-mile or mile and 

 are lower than the surrounding country. Here grow Atri- 

 plices. The locality as far as natural conditions go is favor- 

 able to their growth, and from such a station come four of 

 the five species described in this paper. The other is from 

 the Montezuma Hills along the Suisun Bay shore at Collms- 

 Yille. I think they may prove endemic in the valley of the 

 Sacramento, and are only likely to be rediscovered m similar 

 soils to the northward of these known stations. 



It need not be remarked upon as strange that they cannot 

 be identified with species of the Mohave Desert region or of 

 Arizona or New Mexico. They are not migratory plants ; 



