589 



of the smaller calyces are round, slightly depressed, black and 

 shining, while those formed in the larger calyces are much larger, 

 even so much as to have occasionally three times the diameter of the 

 upper seeds, considerably more depressed, of a dark chestnut, and 

 though shining, wrinkled or shagreened : intermediate forms more 

 rarely occur. The second thing is, that the sepals are at first small 

 and smooth, but enlarge with the ripening fruit, and become tubercled 

 on the back ; while in some species the lower sepals occasionally be- 

 come a pair of leaves including several flowers, and in those above 

 them, the sepals, though they inclose a seed, still retain more or less 

 of a leafy character, and rarely produce any tubercles on the back. 

 This is particularly the case with angustifolia. 



The next species I have to mention is A. erecta. Smith admitted 

 an A. erecta, but he says it is very rare, while Babington's plant, in 

 one form at least, is of all Atriplices the most common, and there 

 is perhaps hardly a corn-field in the kingdom without it. Smith's 

 character, "calyx of fruit all over armed with sharp tubercles," is 

 softened by Babington into " perigone of the fruit more or less muri- 

 cate on the back." It is probable that any specimen referred by 

 Smith to A. erecta would also be so named by Babington, but certain 

 that a great majority of Babington's plants would have been con- 

 sidered by Smith as belonging to angustifolia. I think the two spe- 

 cies different, but I should find it difficult to characterize them. 

 In the tubercles on the back of the sepals there is no difference be- 

 yond that already mentioned, and the lower sepals in erecta also oc- 

 casionally become leaf-like. Yet the large leaf-like calyces are rarely 

 if ever met with in erecta, and all the largest calyces in angustifolia 

 are without tubercles. In the smaller calyces the tubercles seem very 

 uncertain in both. In the normal form (but by no means the most 

 common form) of A. erecta the central stem is erect, but it is some- 

 times so in angustifolia ; and again, in the form of erecta which is so 

 common in our corn-fields, the stem is usually as prostrate as that of 

 any variety of angustifolia except the maritime one. Perhaps the 

 spikes are rather more branched in erecta. I have not found in 

 either any of the large, brown, wrinkled seeds. 



The next species is A. prostrata. The name I believe must be 

 changed as having been already applied to a New Holland plant. I 

 have never seen a specimen. Babington professes himself but slightly 

 acquainted with it. He rests upon the leaves, the calyces (cordato- 

 ' triangular), and the flowers in separate clusters; but his description 

 of the spikes is the same as in patula. The lower leaves are hastato- 



