SALTBUSH FAMILY 435 



Bracts thickish, spongy, united nearly to apex 26. A. nuttallii. 



Fruiting bracts with 4 very conspicuous longitudinal wings or crests. 



Wings crest-like, about 1 line broad 27. A. linearis. 



Wings roundish, 3 to 5 lines broad 28. A. canescens. 



Sect. I. Herbs with pistillate and staminate flowers on the same plant; annuals (nos. 



1-14) or perennials (nos. 15-18). 



1. A. patula L. SPEAR ORACHE. Stout and succulent, erect, 10 to 18 inches 

 high, with few ascending branches; herbage green, only the growing parts 

 somewhat mealy; leaves (the lowest often opposite) lanceolate or linear, some- 

 times with hastate base; inflorescence more or less leafy at base; fruiting 

 bracts rhombic- or lance-ovate, thick and subcoriaceous, united at base, 4 to 

 6 lines long, entire or toothed, the sides smooth or muricate. 



Common in salt marshes along the coast; Southern California to San Fran- 

 cisco Bay and north to British Columbia. Seacoasts of northern hemisphere. 

 Kefs. ATEIPLEX PATULA L. Sp. PL 1053 (1753); Greene, Fl. Fr. 169 (1891). 



2. A. hastata L. FAT-HEN. Bather slender, with long (1 to 2y 2 feet) 

 ascending branches; herbage mealy, scarcely succulent; leaves triangular- 

 hastate or deltoid, entire or sinuate-dentate, 1 to 2 inches long, often as broad 

 or broader, on petioles 3 or 4 lines long ; flowers in dense terminal and lateral 

 spikes 1 to 4 inches long; fruiting bracts orbicular or triangular-ovate, iy 2 

 (or 2) lines long, united at the cuneate base, the sides mostly toothed-crested. 



Common in salt marshes about San Francisco Bay and north to Washington. 

 Atlantic seacoast. Europe. Bracts very variable as to size and either much 

 or little toothed, or entire. Lateral angles of the deltoid leaves often pro- 

 longed into salient lobes. 



Refs. ATRIPLEX HASTATA L. Sp. PI. 1053 (1753), type European. 



3. A. spicata Wats. Erect, 9 to 16 inches high ; herbage scurfy, the stem 

 below glabrate; leaves triangular-ovate, irregularly dentate or entire, cuspi- 

 date, 1 to 2 inches long, on petioles 1 to 6 lines long; flowers in a panicle of 

 usually dense naked spikes; staminate calyx 4-parted; pistillate flowers nearly 

 concealed by the staminate flowers ; bracts in fruit little enlarged, ovate, acute, 

 united to the middle or above, the apex free, the sides smooth or slightly 

 ridged, 1 to l 1 /^ lines long. 



Low alkaline tracts of the interior valleys: Sacramento, San Joaquin and 

 Santa Clara valleys. Occasionally exhibits a tendency to become dioecious. 



Locs. Willows, Jepson; Solano Co., Jepson; Danville, Davy; Mt. Diablo, Jepson; Warm 

 Sprs., Alameda Co., Jepson; Livermore; Hollister, Setchell; Gilroy Valley, Jepson. 



Refs. ATRIPLEX SPICATA Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 108 (1874), type loc. near Livermore 

 Pass, Brewer 1190; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 178 (1901). A. joaquiniana Nelson, Proe. Biol. 

 Soc. Wash. 17: 99 (1904). 



4. A. phyllostegia Wats. Bushy-branching, 4 to 13 inches high ; 'herbage 

 finally glabrous, inclined to be reddish; leaves rhomboidal-hastate with acu- 

 minate lobes, % to l 1 /^ inches long, shortly petioled or subsessile, the blade 

 entire, often almost as broad as long ; fruiting bracts ovate or lanceolate, 4 lines 

 long, abruptly and somewhat reniformly enlarged at base with 2 (or 4) 

 tubercles or short ridges on the sides. 



Mohave Desert ; upper San Joaquin Valley ; Owens Valley. Nevada. 



Locs. Goshen, Jepson 2651; Kern Delta, Davy 2139; Owens Valley, Jepson 930b, 5120; 

 Keeler, T. Brandegee; Barstow, Jepson 5190; Rabbit Sprs., Mohave Desert, Parish Bros. 



Refs. ATRIPLEX PHYLLOSTEGIA Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 108 (1874). Obione phyllostegia 

 Torr. in Wats. Bot. King, 291 (1871), type loe. between Truekee and Humboldt rivers, 

 Nevada. 



5. A. parishii Wats. Prostrate, grayish-scurfy and slightly pubescent; 

 stems slender, 1 to 4 inches long, densely foliaceous; leaves opposite, sessile, 

 broadly ovate, acute, 1 to 2 (or 4) lines long; fruiting bracts ovate-hastate, 

 acute, wingless, or the pair of hastate lobes representing the wing. 



