Blitum. CHENOPODIACEiE, 137 



long. Flowers in small roundish glomerules which are arranged in a terminal spike ; the 

 fertile and sterile mixed, similar in form. Sepals oblong or obovate, mucronate, often truncate 

 or irregularly toothed at the summit. Fertile flowers (in my specimens) always without 

 stamens. Ovary obovate : styles thickish-subulate, longer than the ovary, diverging. Sterile 

 flowers without a rudimentary pistil. Stamens 5, shorter than the calyx: anthers large. 

 Ripe seed not seen. 



Oriskany, Oneida county {Dr. Knieskern) ; New-York {Muhlenberg). This plant seems 

 to be intermediate between Atriplex and Chenopodium ; resembhng the former in its vertical 

 seed, and the latter in the structure of the flower. 



Tribe II. SPINACIEjE. Moq.-Tand. 



Flowers diclinous, often polygamous ; the sterile and fertile dissimilar in form. Seed 

 vertical. Fruit either an utricle or an achenium. Integument of the seed usually 

 double. Embryo annular. — Leaves membranaceous, flat, more or less triangular-hastate. 



4. ATRIPLEX. Tourn.; Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. 50. OUACB. 



[ From the Greek, a, not, and traphein, to nourish ; because most of the species are unfit for food,] 

 Flowers monoecious or dioecious, very rarely perfect. Sterile fl. without bracts. Calyx 

 3 - 5-sepalled, without appendages. Stamens 3-5. Fertile fl. with two distinct or 

 more or less united bracts at the base. Calyx none. Styles 2, united below. Utricle 

 compressed, partly included in the rhombic-ovate or hastate bracts. Seed vertical, some- 

 what lenticular, with a double integument. Embryo completely annular. — Herbs or 

 sometimes undershrubs, often clothed with bran-like scales. Leaves petiolate, more or 

 less hastate or triangular, toothed or entire. Flowers crowded in glomerate spikes. 



1. Atriplex patula, Linn. Halberd-leaved Orach. 



Stem herbaceous, much branched, procumbent ; leaves deltoid-hastate, petiolate, nearly 

 entire or sinuately toothed, glaucous underneath ; bracts rhomboid, acute, often finely toothed 

 at the base, the sides slightly muricate. — Linn. sp. 2. p. 1053 ; Engl. bot. t. 936 ; Bigel. 

 fl. Bost. p. 373 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 577 ; Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. 54. A. laciniata, Pursh,fl. 1. 

 p. 199. A. laciniata, P. Americana, Torr. fl. 1, p. 293. A. Purshiana, Moq.-Tand. I. c. 

 p. 55. 



Annual. Stem much branched from the root, spreading on the ground ; the branches 1-2 

 feet long. Leaves a little fleshy, mealy underneath ; the lower ones two inches or more in 

 length, often triangular, sometimes entire ; upper ones triangular-lanceolate. Flowers in 

 glomerate spikes ; the fertile and perfect intermixed. Bracts of the fertile flowers usually 

 covered on the outer face with subulate or conical points. Stamens sometimes only 4. 



Salt-marshes, and sandy shores as far as the salt water extends ; apparently native. August 

 - September. 



[Flora— Vol 2.] 18 



