SALTBUSH FAMILY 429 



Leaves alternate, sometimes the lowest opposite, but never united at base. 

 Calyx not horizontally winged, leaves plane (except no. 9). 

 Flowers perfect, all of one kind. 

 Calyx 3 to 5-parted or -toothed. 



, Stamen 1; flowers axillary and solitary 2. APHANISMA. 



Stamens 5 (or 4) ; flowers in clusters. 



Calyx with a fleshy disk at base, the ovary partly sunk in it. . . 



3. BETA. 

 Calyx without disk. 



Calyx 5 (or 4) -parted, herbaceous or fleshy in fruit 



4. CHENOPODIUM. 

 Calyx saccate, 3 to 5-toothed, dry in fruit ... 5. EOUBIEVA. 



Calyx of 1 sepal; stamen 1 6. MONOLEPIS. 



Flowers unisexual, of 2 kinds, the staminate with calyx, the pistillate with- 

 out calyx and enclosed by 2 appressed bracts. 

 Fruits not hairy; leaves not revolute. 



Bracts distinct or more or less united, the margins never wholly 

 united, at least partly free, the sides smooth or muricate . . . 



7. ATRIPLEX. 

 Bracts wholly united into an orbicular strongly flattened sac with 



a pin-hole orifice at apex 8. GRAYIA. 



Fruits densely white-hairy; leaves linear, revolute 9. EUROTIA. 



Calyx in fruit surrounded by a 5-lobed wing 10. KOCHIA. 



Stems with the leaves reduced to mere scales; flowers perfect; stems fleshy, jointed. 



Shrubs ; scales alternate 11. S'PIROSTACHYS. 



Herbs ; scales opposite 12. SALICORNIA. 



Embryo spirally coiled, the endosperm lateral or none. 

 Leaves more or less fleshy, soft. 



Flowers unisexual, the staminate in a catkin-like spike, the pistillate axillary 



13. SARCOBATUS. 



Flowers perfect and pistillate, in axillary clusters 14. SUAEDA. 



Leaves dry, rigid or spiny ; flowers perfect 15. SALSOLA. 



1. NITROPHILA Wats. 



A low perennial glabrous herb with fleshy opposite amplexicaul leaves and 

 axillary perfect flowers. Sepals 5 (rarely 6 or 7), chartaceous, imbricated, 

 concave and carinate. Stamens 5, united at base into a narrow yellowish 

 disk. Style longer than the subglobose ovary; stigmas 2. Achene beaked 

 by the persistent style, included within the connivent sepals. One species. 

 (Greek nitron, carbonate of soda, and philos, fond of, these plants loving 

 alkaline soils.) 



1. N. occidentalis Wats. Stems decumbent, oppositely branching, 4 to 

 14 inches long, from a deep-seated thick taproot; leaves linear, sessile, % to 

 1 inch long, the floral mostly 3 to 6 lines long, triangular in cross-section, 

 mucronate; flowers solitary in the axils and bibracteate, or often 2 or 3 with 

 the central one frequently bractless and the lateral shortly pedicelled; sepals 

 pinkish or whitish. 



Moist alkaline soils, often on the black alkali : Sacramento Valley south 

 through the San Joaquin Valley to Southern and Lower California; desert 

 side of the Sierra Nevada. Nevada ; Oregon. 



Locs. Shasta Valley, Butler 1849; Solano Co., San Joaquin Co., Jepson; Goshen, K. Grande- 

 gee, Jepson 2652; Antelope Valley, Davy 2249; San Bernardino, Parish; Studebaker, Los 

 Angeles Co., Braunton 339; Owens Lake, Jepson 5097; Lassen Co., Davy 3326. 



Refs. NITROPHILA OCCIDENTALIS Wats. Bot. King, 297 (1871), the type spms. from the 

 Pacific Coast. Banalia occidentalis Moq. DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 279 (1849), type from Oregon, 

 Nuttall. 



2. APHANISMA Nutt. 



Annual with alternate sessile entire leaves. Flowers minute, perfect, with- 

 out bracts, axillary, solitary. Calyx 3 or 4-cleft, without appendages. Stamen 

 1. Ovary depressed, the short style 2 or 3-cleft. Achene depressed-globose, 

 indurated, somewhat 5-angled, subtended at base by the closely appressed 



