A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 87 



249. Salt marsh, sea beach or sand dune plants with greenish 

 flowers and no petals. (Nos. 250-256.) 



There are only seven different sorts which may be divided 

 thus: 



Plants erect, at least 6 in. high, usually more. 



Prickly and fleshy, all the leaves prickle-tipped 



Saltwort no. 250 



Neither prickly nor fleshy, leaves blunt 



Sea -beach Atriplex no. 251 



Plants prostrate, hugging the ground, or weak. 



With a milky juice ; leaves broadest at the middle 



Seaside Spurge no. 252 



Juice not milky ; leaves broadest towards the tip 



Sea Purslane no. 253 



Plants of the salt marshes. 



Stems usually reddish or yellowish, 2-10 ft. tall 



Salt-marsh Water-hemp no. 254 



Stems green, mostly 1-3 ft. tall. 



Leaves narrow, linear Low Sea-blite no. 255 



Leaves broad, arrowhead-shaped Fat-hen no. 256 



250. Saltwort. Salsola Kali. (Chenopodiaceae.) A stout 

 branched annual usually about 18 in. high, with prickle- 

 pointed leaves that are swollen and nearly succulent at the 

 base. Leaves less than an inch long, the prickle yellowish. 

 Flowers solitary, in the joints of the leaf and stem, greenish. 

 Sea beaches from Cape Breton Island to Florida. August. 

 A related species, ^9. pcstifcr, is similar, but its leaves are 

 reddish. It inhabits waste places nearly throughout America, 

 and came from abroad. (See No. 282.) 



251. Sea-beach Atriplex. Atriplex armaria. (Chenopo- 

 diaceae.) A silvery-scurfy annual, usually much branched, 

 mostjly erect or weak, but not prostrate. Leaves J/2-13^ in. 

 long, narrowed at the base, blunt at the tip. Flowers in small 

 clusters, much shorter than the leaves from the base of 

 which they appear. Sea beaches, New England to Florida. 

 August. Fig. 251. (See No. 282.) 



252. Seaside Spurge. Chamacsyce polygonifolia. (EupJwrbia 

 polygonifolia.) (EitpJiorbiaccae.) Hugging the hot sand of 

 sea beaches. Plant with opposite narrow leaves, and a milky 

 juice. Leaves a little oblique at the base, not over ^ in. long. 

 Flowers greenish yellow, usually solitary at the leaf-base. The 



