GP SMT 
ATRIPLEX CHENOPODIACE 4 595 
in theaxils. Staminate flowers bractless, consisting of a 3—5-parted 
calyx and an equal number of stamens and with or without a rudi- 
mentary ovary. Pistillate flowers subtended by 2 bractlets which 
enlarge in fruit and are more or less united: calyx none. Ovary 
globose or ovoid. Stigmas 2. Utricle completely or partiaily 
enclosed by the enlarged bractlets. Seeds vertical or rarely hori- 
zontal. Embryoannular. : 
§ 1 Annuals: somewhat succulent. Fruiting bracts herbace- 
ous or coriaceous, free or nearly so. Flowers androgynous or sub- 
dicecious in leafy or naked spikes. Radicle inferior or somewhat 
ascending. 
* Leaves usually more or less hastate, the lowest opposite: bracts ovate- 
rhombic to tiiangular or hastate, often crested, the margins foliaceous, 
entire or toothed, 
A. patula L. Sp. 1053. Glabrous and dark green or somewhat scurfy 
above: stem much branched, diffuse, ascending or erect, 1-3 feet long: leaves 
lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, slender-petioled or the uppermost nearly ses- 
sile, entire, sparingly toothed or 3-lobed below the middle, acuminate at the 
apex, narrowed or cuneate at base, 1-5 inches long: flowers in panicled in- 
terrupted mostly leafless spikes and usually also capitate in the upper axils: 
fruiting bractlets united only at the base, fleshy, triangular or rhombic, 3-4 
lines wide their sides often tubercled. In saline places mostly along the coast, 
Alaska to California: also on the Atlantic coast and Europe. 
* * Leaves petioled: bracts ovate to linear, mostly 4-6 lines long, 
entire and not margined nor appendaged, only the apex foliaceous. 
A. zosterefolia Watson Proc. Am. Acad. ix, 109. Weak and slender? 
ascending, a foot high or less, diffusely branched, glabrous or slightly scurfy: 
leaves fleshy, mostly opposite, linear, 1-4 inches long, 1% line broad: flowers 
in axillary clusters and in short axillary androgynous spikes: calyx deeply 5- 
cleft: bracts linear, somewhat unequal, 1-2 lines becoming 4-6 lines long, free, 
fleshy: immature seed less than half a line broad: radicle, slightly ascending: 
mature fruit unknown. Collected only by Scouler at the Straits of De Fuca. 
§ 2 Annuals with alternate or sometimes opposite leaves. 
Radicle superior. 
A. pusilla Watson |. c. 110. Hoary-scurfy throughout: stem slender, 
2-6 inches high, diffusely much-branched, leafy; leaves broadly ovate to op- 
long-ianceolate, 2-4 lines long, acute, sessile, entire, mostly crowded on the 
branches: flowers minute, subsolitary or one of each sex in the axils: calyx 
deeply 5-cleft: bracts ovate, half a line long in fruit, acutish, not foliaceous|y 
' margined nor appendaged: style exserted: seeds with thin transparent testa. 
On alkaline plains, southeastern Oregon to Nevada. 
A. truncata Gray Proc. Am. Acad. viii, 398. Rather stout, erect and 
mostly striate, 1-3 feet high, sparingly branched: leaves broadly ovate, 18 lines 
long, truncate or cordate at base, acute, sessile or the lower shortly petioled, 
spikes more or less leafy: fruiting bracts coriaceous, 114 lines long, ovate-ob- 
long sessile or shortly pedicelled, united up to the truncate herbaceous sum- 
mit, which is obtusely 3-toothed the sides rarely subtuberculate: calyx mostly 
3-4-parted. Oregon to Nevada. 
A. argentea Nutt. Gen. i, 198. Grayish-scurfy or nearly glabrous: 
stem erect, asvending or, decumbent, 6-8 inches high, diffusely branched 
