A. PARISHI. 



275 



broadly rounded to the base, acute at apex, 0.4 to 1 cm. long, 0.3 to 0.5 cm. wide, entire, 

 rigid, gray or nearly white with a dense scurf, 1-nerved; flowers monoecious, several in 

 each of the leaf-axils, the staminate in the middle and upper axils, the pistillate in the 

 middle and lower axils; perianth of staminate flowers 4- or 5-cleft, wanting in the pistil- 

 late; fruiting bracts sessile, slightly compressed, united to a little above the middle, ovate 

 or rhomboidal, often subhastately lobed, acute, 2.5 to 3.5 mm. long, 2.5 to 3 mm. broad, 

 narrowly margined, entire or with a prominent tooth on each side, the faces smooth to 

 muricate; seed about 1.2 mm. long, dark brown or nearly black when fully mature; 

 radicle superior. 



California, from the upper Sacramento Valley nearly to the southern border, east to the 

 edges of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. Type locality, Costa Station, Los Angeles 

 County (now Almond, Orange County), California. Collections, all from California (all 

 but the last 7 referable to minor variation 1, A. depressa Jepson, and some also to minor 

 variation 2, A. minuscula Standley): Willows, Glenn County, Hall 11005 (UC); near 

 Norman, Glenn County, Hall 11006, 11013 (UC); west of Vanden, Solano County, Sep- 

 tember 22, 1891, Jepson (Herb. Jepson, type of A. depressa Jepson, minor variation 1, 

 also US); Altamont Pass, Hall 10975 (CI); 2 km. north of Volta, Merced County, July 

 20, 1920, Hall (CI); Laton, Fresno County, Kearney 33 (US, lower leaves opposite, the 

 upper all alternate) ; same locality, Kearney 34 (US, all leaves opposite) ; 20 km. east of 

 Dos Palos, Fresno County, Hall 11756 (UC); near Chowchilla, Madera County, Hall 

 11759, 11789 (UC); Goshen, Tulare County, about the station, September 1, 1905, 

 Brandegee (UC); Visalia, Tulare County, October, 1881, Congdon (UC); between Tulare 

 and Tulare Lake, Palmer 2728 (US, type of A. minuscula Standley, minor variation 2); 

 Cushenberry Spring, south edge of Mojave Desert, Parish (US); Bixby, Los Angeles 

 County, Brandegee (UC); type collection, October, 1881, Parish 1119 (DS, Gr, US); 

 Santa Monica, Davidson 2936 (US) ; brackish flats near Cahuenga, Los Angeles County, 

 Hasse 5670 (NY); alkali flats, Laguna, Orange County, May, 1907, Minthorn (UC); 

 southeastern base of San Jacinto Mountain, at Vandeventer Flat, Hall 2146 (DS, NY, 

 UC, US); Coahuila Hot Springs, San Diego County, Parish 1119a (Gr). 



MINOR VARIATIONS. 



1. Atriplex depressa Jepson, Pittonia 2:304, 1892.— This has been reduced to A. parishi by Jepson (Fl. 

 Calif. 436, 1914), a disposal with which the present authors agree. It was retained by Standley (N. Am. Fl. 21 : 

 50, 1916) principally on three characters, namely, the branches not "copiously villous," the alternate leaves, and 

 the slightly smaller fruiting bracts. A re-examination of the types and of extensive collections now at hand 

 proves only the first of these to be of value and even this is of but minor importance. In the type of parishi and 

 in three other collections from southern California the branches, especially near the ends, are apparently villous, 

 while in all material from farther north, that is, from the area of depressa, the branches are merely scurfy. 

 But this difference is one of degree only, for the "villosity" of the southern plants is due to the same trans- 

 parent scurf as found in northern plants, except that the individual scales are more elongated and therefore 

 hair-like. Since this elongation of the scurf is a constant feature of all of the southern plants, of which, how- 

 ever, there are only four collections, it may suffice for those who draw exceedingly fine lines between species. 

 As to the opposite arrangement of the leaves, this can be associated neither with the character just mentioned 

 nor with geographic distribution. For example, in Madera County, California, opposite-leaved and alternate- 

 leaved plants grow side by side, and plants with leaves partly opposite and partly alternate are not uncommon 

 in the San Joaquin Valley (e. g.. Hall 11756, UC, and cf. plate 41, fig. 16). The type of A. parishi at the Gray 

 Herbarium has mostly alternate leaves. A duplicate of the same collection at the United States National 

 Herbarium has only opposite leaves, or an occasional leaf slightly displaced from its opposite position. 

 Finally, as to size of bract, an examination of the type of depressa discloses the fact that mature bracts are 3 

 mm. long, exactly the size given for parishi (see plate 41, fig. 22). The average size of the bracts of northern 

 plants is about the same as that of bracts from southern specimens. Thus depressa, if retained as a taxonomic 

 unit, must be based solely upon the shorter scurf of the branches, a character which doubtless will be found 

 to be variable as further collections become available for study. The type locality is "low saline spots, near 

 the alkaline springs, point of the Pelevo Hills, west of Vanden," Solano County, California. 



