442 



CHENOPODIACEAE 



Very variable in its fruiting fcracts. The original or Great Plains plant has densely scurfy 

 wings. Along the Colorado Eiver are plants with very broad and only slightly scurfy fruit 

 wings. With their slender branches crowded with sea-green fruits and bending outwards or 

 towards the ground, these shrubs are not unhandsome objects and are somewhat different in 

 appearance from many forms of the Mohave and Colorado deserts with scurfy fruits and often 

 much reduced or toothed wings. 



Var. laciniata Parish n. var. Wings 3 or 4 lines broad, saliently laciniate. 

 (Alae lin. 3-4 latae, profunde laciniatae.) Caleb, Colorado Desert, Parish 

 8256. Also occurring in the Mohave Desert (Barstow, Jepson 5171a). Pass- 

 ing into the next. 



Var. macilenta Jepson n. var. Wings much reduced, % to l 1 /^ lines broad, 

 coarsely toothed. (Alae perminutae, lin. %-!% latae, dentatae.) Holtville, 

 Colorado Desert, Parish 8258. Not uncommon in the southern part of the 

 Colorado Desert. Aspect very different from the type. 



Refs. ATRIPLEX CANESCENS James, Cat. 178 (1825); Merriam, N. Am. Fauna, 7: 326 

 (1893). Calligonum canescens Pursh, Fl. 2: 370 (1814), type loc. Big-bend of the Missouri. 



8.* GRAYIA H. & A. 



Low shrubs with alternate entire leaves. Flowers dioecious or sometimes 

 monoecious, in axillary clusters or terminal spikes. Staminate flowers with- 

 out bracts ; calyx mostly 4-parted ; stamens 4 or 5, with short subulate filaments. 

 Pistillate flowers without calyx, the ovary enclosed in an orbicular strongly 

 flattened membranous sac with a small orifice at the apex and bordered all 

 around with a narrow wing; sac really composed of 2 conduplicate bracts 

 united by their edges nearly to the apex, each bract with a wing developed 

 on the back or midrib, the whole much enlarged in fruit. Styles 2. Achene 

 with very thin pericarp. Two species, Great Basin region. (Asa Gray, 1810- 

 1888, distinguished American botanist.) 



1. G. spinosa Moq. HOP SAGE. (Fig. 86.) 

 Deep green shrub 1^ to 3 feet high, the branches 

 frequently spinescent; young parts mealy, finally 

 glabrous; leaves rather fleshy, linear-oblanceolate 

 or obovate, 4 to 15 lines long, barely petioled; 

 staminate flowers in axillary clusters, the pistillate 

 mostly spicate ; fruiting bracts round, 3 to 6 lines 

 in diameter, sessile, entire, glabrous, thin, white 

 or pinkish, emarginate, abruptly narrowed below 

 to a short cuneate pedicel-like base, or the pedicel 

 often obscure or obsolete; styles slender, at first 

 exserted. Alkaline valleys: Mohave Desert to 

 Owens Valley; north to Washington and east to 

 Wyoming. 



Locs. Antelope Valley, Hall 3036 ; Barstow, Jepson 4833 ; Panamint Mts., Hall $ Chandler 

 6992; Big Pine, Hall $ Chandler 7227; Argus Mts., Purpus 5481; Honey Lake Valley, Davy 

 3273. 



Refs. GRAYIA SPINOSA Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 119 (1849); Merriam, N. Am. Fauna, 7: 

 328 (1893). Chenopodium ? spinosum Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 127 (1838), type loc. Columbia 

 River basin, Douglas. Grayia polygaloides H. & A. Bot. Beech. 388 (1840) ; Hook. Icon. PI. 3, 

 pi. 271 (1840); Kennedy, Univ. Nev. Agr. Exp. Bull. 55: 36 (1903). 



9. EUROTIA Adans. 



Low white-tomentose shrubs with alternate entire leaves. Flowers dioecious 

 or monoecious, in small axillary clusters, the clusters spicately disposed at 

 the ends of the branches. Staminate flowers without involucral bracts ; calyx 

 hairy, 4-parted; stamens 4, exserted. Pistillate flowers without calyx; pistil 

 enclosed in a membranous densely silky-hairy sac composed of two bracts 

 united above the middle and with spreading apices ; styles 2, slender, exserted. 



Fig. 86. GRAYIA SPINOSA Moq.: 

 fruiting bracts, x 4. 



