CHENOPODIACEAE. 



i. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) 



Torr. Grease-wood. 



(Fig- 1392.) 



Batis (?) vermiculata Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 128 



1838. 

 Sarcobatus vermtculans Torr. Emory's Rep. 150. 



1848. 



Glabrous or the young foliage somewhat pu- 

 bescent, much branched, 2-io high, the 

 branches slightly angled, leafy, nearly white, 

 some of them leafless and spine-like. Stem 

 I '-3' in diameter; wood yellow, very hard; 

 leaves obtuse or subacute, %'-!%' long, i"- 

 \Y^ /f wide, narrowed at the base; spikes of 

 staminate flowers X /-I/ l n g. i}4 // -2 // in dia- 

 meter, cylindric, short-peduncled or sessile; 

 wing of the calyx 4 // -6 // broad when mature, 

 conspicuously veined. 



In dry alkaline and saline soil, western Xe- 

 braska, Wyoming to Nevada and Xew Mexico. 

 Wood extensively used for fuel, for want of better, 

 in the regions where it occurs. June-July. Fruit 

 mature Sept. -Oct. 



12. DONDIA Adans. Farn. PI. 2: 261. 1763. 

 [SUAEDA Forsk. Fl. AEg. Arab. 69. pi. i8b. 1775.] 



Fleshy annual or perennial herbs, or low shrubs, with alternate narrowly linear thick or 

 nearly terete entire sessile leaves, and perfect or polygamous bracteolate flowers, solitary or 

 clustered in the upper axils. Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, the segments sometimes keeled or 

 even slightly winged in fruit, enclosing the utricle. Stamens 5. Styles usually 2, short. 

 Pericarp separating from the vertical or horizontal seed. Embryo coiled into a flat spiral. 

 Endosperm wanting or very little. [In honor of Jacopodi Dondi, Italian naturalist of the 

 fourteenth century.] 



About 50 species, of wide geographic distribution. Besides the following, some 6 others occur 

 in the western and southern parts of North America. 



Annuals of the Atlantic sea coast. 



Dark green, not glaucous; sepals acutely keeled; seed black. i. D. Americana. 



Light green, glaucous; sepals scarcely keeled; seed dark red. 2. D. maritima. 



Perennial of the western plains. 3. D. depressa. 



i. Dondia Americana (Pers.) Brit- 

 ton. Tall Sea-Blite. 

 (Fig. 1393.) 



Salsola salsa VAT. Americana Pers. Syn. i: 206. 



1805. 

 Suaeda linearis var. ramosa S. Wats. Proc. 



Am. Acad. 9: 87. 1874. 



Annual, dark green or purplish green, 

 not glaucous, stem erect, strict, i-3 tall, 

 pale green or nearly white, branched, the 

 branches slender, very leafy, erect-ascend- 

 ing or sometimes recurved, more or less se- 

 cund. Leaves of the stem linear-subulate, 

 y^'-^Yt' long, those of the branches much 

 shorter, somewhat 3-angled, lanceolate-sub- 

 ulate, widest just above the base, the upper 

 surface flat; sepals purple-green, glaucous, 

 acutely keeled or almost winged; seed 

 orbicular, black, shining, }/?." broad. 



On salt marshes and along salt water ditches, 

 Nova Scotia to New Jersey and probably fur- 

 ther south. Aug.-Sept. 



