142 CHENOPODIACEiE. Stjeda. 



Annual. Stem 1-2 feet high, commonly erect, but often decumbent, with numerous erect 

 or spreading branches. Leaves about an inch long and a line in diameter, very acute. Flowers 

 very small, usually three together. Segments of the calyx rounded, concave, connivent. 

 Utricle very thin. Seed black. Embryo distinctly spiral. 



Salt-marshes, Island of New-York and on Long Island. August - September. Cheeno- 

 podium salsutn, Linn. (Suaeda salsa, Pall. = Shoberia salsa, C. A. Met/.) is considered by 

 Moquin-Tandon as only a variety of S. maritima. 



Tribe V. SALSOLE^. Moq.-Tand. 



Flowers perfect, hracteate, all similar in form. Seed vertical or horizontal. Pericarp an 

 utricle. Integument of the seed simple, membranaceous. Albumen none. Embryo 

 conico-spiral ( mostly green). — Leaves mostly semiterete. 



9. SALSOLA. Linn, {in^sxi); Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. \M. SALTWORT. 



[ From the Latin, sal, salt j many of the species yielding abundance of alkaline salt.] 



Calyx 5-sepalled; the sepals finally with a broad horizontal scarious wing on the back. 

 Stamens usually 5, without intermediate scales. Styles 2, mostly united at the base. 

 Utricle depressed, covered with the persistent calyx, which is crowned with a winged border. 

 Seed horizontal, somewhat globose. Embryo cochleate (like a minute snailshell). — Herbs 

 or undershrubs, with fleshy mostly terete leaves and axillary sessile flowers. 



1. Salsola Kali, Linn. Common Saltwort. 



Herbaceous, somewhat erect or procumbent, with ascending branches ; leaves subulate, 

 spiny at the tip ; bracts shorter than the floral leaves ; flowers solitary ; wing of the fructiferous 

 calyx broad, nearly orbicular, spreading. — Linn. sp. 1. p. 222 ; Engl. bot. t. 634 ; Pursh, 

 fl.l. p.l97 ; Torr. fl. \. p. 297 ; Beck, bot. p. 298 ; Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. 136. S. 

 Carolina, Michx. fl.l. p. 174 ; Ell. sk. 1. p. 331 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 106. S. Kali, var. 

 Caroliniana, Nutt. gen. 1. p. 199. 



Annual. Stem branched, erect when young, but at length diffuse and very much branched, 

 forming a very prickly bush-like plant, pubescent or nearly smooth. Leaves broad at the 

 base, half an inch to an inch in length, with a pungent spiny tip ; the lower ones falling oiT 

 late in the season. Flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, each with two bracts or rather 

 bracteoles at the base, which resemble the leaves, but one smaller. Sepals acuminate ; the 

 summits connivent, forming a sort of beak ; the wing, in fruit, about as long as the sepal, 

 purplish. Stamens 5, longer than the calyx : anthers roundish, purple. Styles filiform : 

 stigmas simple. Utricle thin. Embryo green. 



Sandy seacoast, and about the harbor of New- York ; also along the Hudson as far as the 

 Highlands. Fl. August - September. 



