134 Batidaceae 



3-9 dm. high ; leaves ovate to oval, obtuse to emarginate at apex, 

 mostly narrowed at the base, 3-7 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide ; petioles 

 slender, often as long as the blades or the lower longer ; flowers 

 polygamous, in dense mostly short and thick terminal spikes and 

 capitate in the axils ; bracts shorter than the 2-3 oblong or spat- 

 ulate sepals; utricle fleshy, 3-5-nerved, smooth, indehiscent, 

 rather shorter than the sepals. 



Redondo, Greata. A ballast plant introduced from tropical America. 



2. ALTERNANTHEKA Forsk. 



Annual or perennial branching herbs, with opposite 

 (at least the lower) entire leaves and perfect or dioecious 

 flowers, in panicles or heads, 3-bracted. Sepals 5. Sta- 

 mens 5, united into a short cup at base ; sterile fila- 

 ments minute, tooth-like ; anthers 1-celled. Style short ; 

 stigma capitate or 2-lobed. Seed vertical, lenticular. 



1. A. Achyrantha R. Br. Stem prostrate, pubescent; 1-3 

 dm. long; leaves smoothigh oval or obovate, narrowed into a 

 petiole; heads mostly axillary, solitary or clustered, dense, oval, 

 white ; sepals lanceolate, spine-pointed, woolly with barbed hairs 

 on the back, the 2 inner ones much smaller; sterile filaments 

 subulate, equaling the fertile ones. 



Streets of Los Angeles, Davidson. Native of tropical America. 



Family 24. BATIDACEAE. BATIS FAMILY. 



A low maritime shrub, with opposite entire exstip- 

 ulate leaves and dioecious bracteate flowers, in axil- 

 lary sessile ament-like, spikes. Staminate flowers dis- 

 tinct. Calyx campanulate, 2-lipped. Petals 4, rhombic- 

 ovate, clawed. Pistillate flowers 8-12, united into a 

 fleshy spike, without perianth. Ovaries coherent, 4-celled, 

 becoming a fleshy, ovoid-conical fruit ; stigma sessile, 

 capitate. Seeds 1 in each cell, erect, oblong ; testa mem- 

 branous ; embryo slightly curved, caulicle inferior ; endo- 

 sperm none. Represented by a single monotypic genus. 



