248 GENUS ATRIPLEX. 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



The principal characters of this species indicate that it is close to the primitive type 

 of Atriplex. The retention of the perianth in about 25 per cent of the pistillate flowers, 

 the inferior radicle, and the herbaceous and monoecious habit all indicate an absence of 

 specialized development, which, however, is noted in some minor details. It has no 

 close relatives in America, where it is known only as an introduced plant. It has been 

 suggested by Beck (Icon. 24:128, 1908) that it has originated in cultivation, and Moss 

 (Cambr. Brit. Fl. 2:170, 1914) admits this as a possibility. However, these authors 

 refer to the species exclusive of A. nitens (see 4 and 5 of the minor variations), and when 

 so restricted A. hortensis is not positively known anywhere as a native plant. It seems 

 quite probable that A. nitens, which is a native of Central Asia and especially of Tibet, is 

 the original form and that the common hortensis has bee'n derived as a consequence of the 

 suppression of scurf on the under surface of the leaves. If this assumption is correct, 

 the ancestral home of the genus probably was in central Asia. Furthermore, the true 

 or phylogenetic type of the species is A. nitens, while the nomenclatorial type remains as 

 the earlier A. hortensis. Throughout this discussion the well-established name of 

 nitens has been used for a form which should be designated as A. sagittata if the rules of 

 nomenclature are strictly followed (see Nos. 4 and 5 of the minor variations). 

 ECOLOGY AND USES. 



Atriplex hortensis is an annual herb, which has escaped from gardens to become a weed 

 in waste places, and especially along ditches and in depressions. As a temporary weed 

 of infrequent occurrence it plays little part in vegetation, and its ecological behavior is 

 negligible. The plants bloom from spring to late summer, and the showy colored fruits 

 persist through the autumn. 



Orache, as this species is commonly known, is much grown in Europe and also to a 

 limited extent in America as a food plant. It is often called French spinach, this name 

 indicating the use to which it is put. There are numerous garden varieties, differing 

 from one another in habit, taste, and especially in color. Some have dark-red herbage 

 and fruiting bracts, but the color disappears on cooking. A variety with white stems and 

 pale foliage is said to be the one most commonly grown. A crimson-leaved variety {atro- 

 sanguinea of the gardeners) is a favorite for ornamental purposes. These various color 

 forms come true to seed in garden cultures. One authority states, after 40 years of obser- 

 vation, that he has never seen them to vary (Miller, Gard. Diet., ed. 8, 1768). Although 

 the gardenscale frequently escapes in America and then becomes a weed, it will never 

 cause much trouble. It grows only in moist, waste places and soon disappears when cul- 

 tivation is practiced. 



2. ATRIPLEX PATULA Linnaeus, Sp. PL 1053, 1753. Plate 37. Spearscale; 

 Speak Orache. 



Erect, decumbent, or prostrate annual herb, varying greatly in habit and size, usually 

 2 to 10 dm. high, but sometimes reduced to less than 1 dm. in simple-stemmed plants, 

 sometimes up to 15 dm. when growing in thickets, simple to widely branched; branches 

 slender or stout, rather rigid, smooth in small and young plants, but commonly grooved 

 or with numerous vertical ribs, these white or pale, the intervals green; leaves perhaps 

 always opposite below, usually alternate above, but sometimes all opposite, petioled or 

 sometimes sessile, typically subdeltoid-lanceolate or ovate, but varying from broadly 

 triangular-hastate to linear, attenuate to cordate or hastate at base, acute or obtuse at 

 apex, exceedingly variable as to size, the margins entire or coarsely dentate, somewhat 

 fleshy, sparsely or densely furfuraceous when young, usually glabrate and green at 

 maturity; flowers monoecious, in glomerules the lower of which are sometimes in the 

 leaf-axils, the upper glomerules commonly in simple or compound spikes, the staminate 



