134 Batidaceae 



3-9 dm. high ; leaves ovate to oval, obtuse to emarginate at apex, 

 mostly narrowed at the base, 3-7 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide; petioles 

 slender, often as long as the blades or the lower longer ; flowers 

 polygamous, in dense mostly short and thick terminal spikes and 

 capitate in the axils ; bracts shorter than the 2-3 oblong or spat- 

 ulate sepals; utricle fleshy, 3-5-nerved, smooth, indehiscent, 

 rather shorter than the sepals. 



Rgdondo, Greata. A ballast plant introduced from tropical Americf. 



2. AL.TERN ANTHER A Forsk. 



Annual or perennial branching herbs, with opposite 

 (at least the lower) entire leaves and perfect or dioecious 

 flowers, in panicles or heads, 3-bracted. Sepals 5. Sta- 

 mens 5, united into a short cup at base ; sterile fila- 

 ments minute, tooth-like ; anthers 1-celled. Style short ; 

 stigma capitate or 2-lobed. Seed vertical, lenticular. 



1. A. Achyrantha R. Br. Stem prostrate, pubescent; 1-3 

 dm. long; leaves smoothigh oval or obovate, narrowed into a 

 petiole; heads mostly axillary, solitary or clustered, dense, oval, 

 white; sepals lanceolate, spine-pointed, woolly with barbed hairs 

 on the back, the 2 inner ones much smaller; sterile filaments 

 subulate, equaling the fertile ones. 



Streets of Los Angeles, Davidson. Native of tropical America. 



Family 24. BATIDACEAE. BATIS FAMILY. 



A low maritime shrub, with opposite entire exstip- 

 ulate leaves and dioecious bracteate flowers, in axil- 

 lary sessile ament-like spikes. Staminate flowers dis- 

 tinct. Calyx campanulate, 2-lipped. Petals 4, rhombic- 

 ovate, clawed. Pistillate flowers 8-12, united into a 

 fleshy spike, without perianth. Ovaries coherent, 4-celled, 

 becoming a fleshy, ovoid-conical fruit; stigma sessile, 

 capitate. Seeds 1 in each cell, erect, oblong ; testa mem- 

 branous ; embryo slightly curved, caulicle inferior ; endo- 

 sperm none. Represented by a single monotypic genus. 



