Alternanthera. cEXOPODIACE^]. 43 



2. NITROPHILA, Watson. 



Flowers perfect, mostly 2-bracted. Perianth of 5 (rarely 6 or 7) equal erect con- 

 cave and carinate sepals. Stamens as many, united at base into a very narrow peri- 

 gynous disk : anthers 2-celled : staminodia none. Style short : stigmas 2, slender. 

 Utricle subglobose, indehiscent, 1 -seeded, beaked by the persistent style, included 

 within the connivent sepals. A low perennial branching glabrous herb, with 

 fleshy opposite amplexicaul leaves, and axillary sessile or shortly pedicellate flowers. 

 Bot. King Exp. 297. Banalia Idiopsis, Moquin, DC. Prodr. xiii 2 . 279. 



1. N. OCCidentaliS, Watson, 1. c. Stems ascending or decumbent, 3 to 8 inches 

 high, from a perennial running rootstock, branching from the base and angular : 

 lowermost leaves broadly ovate or oblong, 2 or 3 lines long ; the rest linear, G to 12 

 lines long, semiterete, acuminate and cuspidate : bracts similar but shorter, mostly 

 twice longer than the flowers : flowers 1 to 3 in each axil ; the lateral ones frequently 

 short-pedicelled, 2 3-bracted, the central one often bractless : sepals a line long, 

 rather rigid, ovate, acutish, exceeding the stamens and style : utricle brownish : seed 

 half a line broad, black and shining. Banalia occidentalis, Moquin, 1. c. 



In moist ground near alkaline springs ; Oregon (Nutlall) ; Lower Sacramento (Pickering) ; 

 Providence Mountains (Cooper) ; Western Nevada, Stretch, Walson. 



3. CLADOTHRIX, Nutt. 



Flowers perfect, 3-bracted ; bracts concave, hyaline. Perianth of 5 erect equal 

 oblong rigid-scarious sepals, somewhat pilose with verticillately branched hairs. 

 Stamens 5, the filaments united at base into a short cup : anthers large, oblong, 

 1-celled. Ovary subglobose : style short; stigma capitate, 2-lobed. Utricle ovate- 

 globose, indehiscent, 1-seeded. Low annual, or erect and woody at base, densely 

 stellate-tomentose, with opposite small rounded entire petiolate leaves, and very 

 small flowers solitary or few in the axils. Beuth. & Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 37. 



Only the two following species are known. 



1. C. lanuginosa, Nutt. in herb. Annual, prostrate or ascending, diffusely 

 branched, densely white-tomentose becoming glabrate ; stems often a foot or two 

 long: leaves round-obovate to rhomboidal, more or less attenuate at base, 3 to 10 

 lines long, often in threes, two of them smaller : flowers mostly in pairs ; sepals less 

 than a line long, obtusish, twice longer than the broader hairy-tipped bracts : utricle 

 glabrous, shorter than the sepals. Acliyranthes lanuginosa, IS T utt. Fl. Ark. 166. 

 Alternanthera (?) lanuginom, Torr. in Emory's Rep. 150, and Bot. Mex. Bound. 180 ; 

 Moquin, DC.' Prodr. xiii 2 . 359. 



Banks of the Colorado near Chimney Peak (Ncivbcmj), and eastward to Arkansas and Texas. 



C. suFFiumcosA, Benth. & Hook. Somewhat woody at base, erect and much branched, half 

 a foot high or less : leaves rounded or ovate, truncate or usually rounded at base, 2 to 6 lines long, 

 very shortly petioled. A Itcrnanthcra (?) sujft'ruticosa, Torr. in Bot. Mex. Bound. 181. Valley 

 of the l\io Grande, IVright. 



ORDER LXXIX. CHENOPODIACEJE. 



Herbs or shrubs, often succulent or scurfy, sometimes fleshy and leafless, usually 

 with simple and alternate leaves, without stipules ; the small and sessile commonly 

 clustered flowers either naked or with herbaceous (not scarious) bracts, a perianth 

 of 5 or fewer usually herbaceous and persistent sepals, often changed in fruit 



