304: PITTOXIA. 



they grow only in peculiar soils wliich are for the most part 

 limited in extent. It is as impossible for them to cross a level 

 alluvial plain as a mountain range of five thousand feet. 

 Their seeds are very unliliely to be transported by the agency 

 of man and being transported are the least likely of all x)lants 

 to fall in that peculiar kind of saline soil which they favor. 

 There is slight resemblance among any of these new species 

 least of all in habit. The one character which they possess 

 in common is that they are moncecious ; two are constantly 

 androgynous. 



Atriplex DErRESSA. A prostrate, grayish-scurfy annual 

 Avith slender stems 1 to 1 inches long, decussately branched 

 throughout ; leaves opposite, sessile, broadly ovate, acute, a 

 line or two long ; flowers in the axils of the opposite leaves 

 in clusters of four — these and the subtending leaves crowded 

 on the branchlets, the internodes at time of flowering a line 

 long or less ; fruiting bracts ovate-hastate, acute, wingless, 

 or the pair of hastate lobes representing the wing. 



This species stands quite alone in Atriplex as far as habit 

 goes. It is distinguished by its leaves wdiich are opposite 

 not only below but even to the very ends of the brancJies. It is 

 also remarkable for its decussate branching, its small size and 

 jjrostrate habit. The inflorescence is androgynous, commonly 

 two staminate calyces and two pistillate bracts in each cluster. 

 The bracts are completely united over the utricle seldom par- 

 tially distinct even at the apex. In low saline spots, at the 

 base of the Pelevo Hills, west of Yandpn. S^nt. 92 1891. 



A. coEDFLATA, Annual ; eight to fifteen inches high, 

 widely and oppositely branched at the base, alternately and 

 sparingly so above; herbage scurfy throughout; leaves 

 sessile, cordate-ovate, three or sometimes four lines long: 

 flower-clusters in all the axils; calyx tomentosely scurfy and' 

 deeply i-cleft ; fruiting bracts semi-orbicular, IJ to 2 lines 

 broad ; much compressed, sessile or shortly stipitate, the 

 margin with acute teeth, the terminal tooth commonly the 



