EBEMOSEMIUM CHENOPODIAOE^E 597 



CORISPERMUM 



dioecious or sometimes monoecious. Calyx of the bractless stamin- 

 ate flowers mostly 4-parted, the 4-5 stamens central, with short 

 subulate filaments. Pistillate flowers without calyx, enveloped 

 in the obcompressed membranaceous bracts which are united into 

 an orbicular flattened sac with a small naked orifice at the apex, 

 adherent below to each other and to the pedicel of the ovary, be- 

 coming enlarged and reticulately veined and somewhat wavy- 

 margined vertically. Styles 2, slender, at first exserted. Seeds 

 vertical, with a membranaceous testa. Embryo annular: radicle 

 inferior. 



E. spiuosii Greene Pitt. iv. 225 Grayia polygaloides H. & A. Stems 

 erect, diffusely branched, 1-4 feet high, the branchlets often spines- 

 cent: leaves rather fleshy, glabrous or at first with the young branches 

 somewhat mealy, oblanceolate or spatulate to obovate, 6-15 lines long, 

 obtuse or acute, narrowed at base and sometimes petioled : staminate flow- 

 ers in axillary clusters, the pistillate mostly spicate : fruiting bracts 3-6 

 lines in diameter, sessile, smooth, emarginate, thin, white or pinkish : the 

 seed usually central, about % of a line broad. On rocky ridges, eastern 

 Oregon to California and Utah. 



Tribe 3 Corispermete Moq. Chenop. 101. Stems not articulated . 

 Leaves not fleshy. Flowers perfect, bractless. Pericarp adherent to 

 the vertical seed. Embryo annular around copious albumen. 



9 CORISPERMUM L. Sp. 4. 



Annual herbs with alternate leaves and small perfect bractlegs 

 green flowers solitary in the axils, forming narrow leafy terminal 

 spikes, the upper leaves shorter and broader than the lower. Calyx 

 1 or 2 thin broad sepals. Stamens 1-3, rarely more and one of 

 them longer. Ovary ovoid: styles 2. Utricle ellipsoidal, mostly 

 plano-convex, the pericarp firmly adherent to the vertical seed, 

 its margins acute or winged. Embryo annular, surrounding 

 somewhat fleshy albumen: radicle inferior. 



C. hyssopifolium L. Sp. 4. More or less floccose or villous-pubescent : 

 stem erect, 6-18 inches high, diffusely much branched: leaves linear, 9-18 

 lines long, cuspidate : floral bracts reduced more or less abruptly, from 

 linear-lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, membranously margined: 

 sepals rarely wanting, shorter than the bracts: ftamens more or less per- 

 fectly developed : fruit 1)^-2 lines long narrowly winged, obtuse, often 

 mucronate with the projecting style. On sandy alkaline plains, Alaska to 

 California and the Atlantic States and Europe. 



Tribe 4 Salicornieae Dumort. Moq. in DC. Prodr. xiii pt. 2, 144- 

 Fleshy saline plants with jointed stems and scale-like leaves. Flow- 

 ers mostly perfect, immersed 6? threes in depressions in the rachis of a 

 close cylindrical spike. Seed vertical. Embryo annular, with little 

 albumen. 



9 SALICORNTA L. Sp. 3. 



Fleshy annual or perennial plants with opposite terete branches 

 scale-like leaves and small perfect, or the lateral staminate, flow- 

 ers in heads of 3-7 sunken in the axils of the upper scales, form- 



