Salsola] cxvu. CHENOPODIACE^:. (J. D. Hooker.) 17 



16. SAXiSOXiA, Linn. 



Herbs or shrubs; branches not jointed. Leaves usually alternate, sessile, 

 often short and pungent. Flowers small, solitary or fascicled, axillary, 2- 

 sexual, 2-bracteolate. Sepals 4-5, concave, fruiting accrescent usually 

 horizontally and broadly winged above the middle, completely embracing 

 the utricle. Stamens 5 or fewer, usually hypogynous. Utricle ovoid or 

 orbicular, fleshy or membranous ; stigmas 2-3, subulate or linear. Seed 

 usually horizontal, testa membranous, albumen ; embryo spiral. Species 

 40, Europe, N. and S. Africa, Temp. Asia, Australia, N. America. 



* Annual spinescent herbs. Leaves ovate-subulate or linear. 



1. S. Kali, Linn.' Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 954 ; pubescent, scabrid or 

 glabrous, diffusely branched from the base, branches stout rigid, leaves 

 short subulate-lanceolate from a J-amplexicaul base thick rigid pungent, 

 flowers 1-3 together axillary or subspicate, bracts and sepals subequal 

 pungent, fruiting perianth cartilaginous base rounded, wings obovate 

 orbicular or reniform scarious sometimes obsolete. Moq. in DC. Prodr. 

 xiii. 2. 187. ? S. Jacquemontii, Moq. I. c. 188. 



NORTH-WESTERN PANJAB ; Peshawar, Stewart. WESTERN TIBET, alt. 

 12-14,000 ft., Thomson, &c. DISTRIB. Westward to the Atlantic, N. Asia, N". 

 and S. Africa, Australia, N. America. 



Usually glaucous ; stein 6-18 in. rarely erect, and branches soft and pithy within, 

 striped green and white. Leaves i~l| in., spreading and recurved. Fruiting- 

 perianth 5-3- in. diani., transparent, often rose-coloured. Seed adherent to the 

 utricle. 



2. Xi. collina, 0. A. Mey. in Led. Fl. Alt. i. 393; erect or decum- 

 bent, simple or branched, protean in habit and foliage, glabrous or hispid, 

 leaves ovate rigid or broadly subulate or linear and flaccid tip pungent base 

 i-amplexicaul, floral similar much longer than the bracts, flowers 1-3 axillary, 

 perianth membranous, sepals lanceolate equal or unequal, fruiting dimorphic, 

 either little changed and adnate below to and enclosed within the hardened 

 and thickened bases of the floral leaf, bracts and bracteoles, or with the 

 the bracts, &c., unchanged and the sepals becoming broadly equally or 

 unequally winged. Moq. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2. 188 ; Pall. III. PL 34, t. 26 ; 

 Ledeb. Fl. Ross. iii. 800. 



KTTNAWTJR, Herb. Royle. WESTERN TIBET, alt. 12-15,000 ft., common, Thomson, 

 Clarke. DISTRIB. S. Russia, Siberia, Soongaria. 



A most puzzling plant, usually smaller in all its parts than L. Kali, so variable in 

 habit that it is difficult to believe that the various Tibetan forms are referable to 

 one species. The originally described form, well figured by Pallas, has diffuse stiff 

 branches uniformly clothed throughout with imbricating ovate-lanceolate appressed 

 coriaceous green leaves \-% in. long, with white margins and 1-2 flowers in the axils 

 of each, with ovate erect pungent bract and bracteole ; its exact counterpart occurs 

 in Tibet. The greatest contrast to this is a strict erect simple or branched form, with 

 scattered distant spreading cylindric or filiform flaccid leaves an inch long, and axillary 

 flowers sunk in the hardened nut-like connate bases of the leaf bracts and bracteoles. 

 Another form is 6-14 in. high, erect, with green striped stout stem and branches, 

 and rigid spreading or recurved or flexuous spinescent linear or lanceolate leaves 

 |-^ in. long. Another has stout branches spreading on the ground, with filiform leaves 

 1J in. long. Another form has dense squarrose tufts of branches beset closely with 

 rigid subulate recurved imbricating leaves -| in. long. The perianth is as variable 

 as the habit and foliage : when the perianth becomes winged, it is rarely regularly so; 

 when the bases of the bracts, &c., become indurated round the flower, the sepals rarely 

 VOL. V. C 



