CHENOPODIACEAE. 89 



Atriplex argentea Nutt. Whole plant silvery from the dense scurfy pubes- 

 cence; leaves thickish, triangular-ovate, 1-3 cm. long, mostly petioled; 

 staminate flowers in dense terminal spikes or axillary clusters; fruiting bracts 

 rhombic-ovate, united, the margins dilated and sharply toothed, the sides 

 roughened with tooth-like appendages. In alkaline soil, common in the sage- 

 brush region. 



119. MONOLEPIS. 



Low annual branching herbs; leaves small, narrow, alternate, 

 entire, toothed or lobed ; flowers perfect or polygamous, in small 

 axillary clusters; calyx of one persistent herbaceous sepal; 

 stamen 1 ; utricle flat ; endosperm mealy. 



Monolepis nuttalliana (Roem. & Schult.) Greene. Stems erect or decum- 

 bent at base, branched below, 10-40 cm. tall, glabrous or very sparsely mealy 

 throughout; leaves lanceolate, attenuate at each end, acute or obtuse, com- 

 monly with a single large tooth or lobe on each side near the middle, 1-3 cm. 

 long, the upper sessile or nearly so, the lowermost slender-petioled; flowers 

 clustered in the axils of the leaves on the elongate erect simple branches; 

 sepal oblanceolate or spatulate, acutish. In bare soil, especially where it is 

 somewhat saline. 



120. BLITUM. Blite. 



Annual succulent branching herbs, with alternate hastate 

 petioled light green leaves; flowers small, green or reddish, in 

 globose axillary sessile heads, or the upper heads forming a spike; 

 calyx 2-5-lobed becoming pulpy in fruit ; stamens 1-5 ; embryo a 

 complete ring in the mealy endosperm. 



Blitum capitatum L. Strawberry Blite. Glabrous throughout; stems erect 

 or spreading, somewhat branched, 10-80 cm. high; leaves triangular, coarsely 

 and unevenly dentate, 2-6 cm. long, on petioles of about the same length; 

 flower clusters globose, dense, in the axils of the reduced upper leaves; calyx 

 fleshy in fruit and bright red, the clusters resembling strawberries; seed black, 

 subglobose. Apparently native but infrequent. 



121. CHENOPODIUM. Goosefoot. 



Annual or perennial, green and glabrous, white-mealy or 

 glandular-pubescent herbs; leaves alternate, petioled, entire, 

 sinuate-dentate or pinnately-lobed ; flowers very small, green, 

 perfect, sessile, bractless, clustered in axillary or terminal, often 

 panicled or compound spikes ; calyx 2-5-parted or lobed ; stamens 

 1-5 ; utricle embraced or enclosed by the calyx, the segments of 

 which are herbaceous or slightly fleshy in fruit ; endosperm mealy. 



Calyx somewhat fleshy and red in fruit. C. rubrum. 



Calyx dry in fruit. 



Pericarp loosely attached to the seed; leaves entire. C. leptophyllutn. 



Pericarp firmly attached to the seed; leaves dentate. 



Herbage glandular-pubescent. C. botrys. 



Herbage not glandular. 



Leaves mealy beneath. C. album. 



Leaves glabrous. C. hybridum. 



