A. SACCARIA. 281 



inate flowers (always?) 5-cleft, wanting in the pistillate; fruiting bracts long-stalked 

 to sessile, scarcely compressed, united to the summit, of two kinds, the smaller (normal?) 

 ones cuneate, truncate at summit, 3 mm. long and nearly as broad, margined only at 

 summit, the margin here undulate or with a few minute teeth, the sides smooth, the larger 

 bracts (often in the same axils, sometimes scarce or reduced, as in the type), globoid 

 through the development of numerous appendages, up to 6 mm. in diameter, thickly 

 beset with flat or cristate appendages or some of these horn-like, all of the bracts densely 

 scurfy and the veins not prominent; seed 1.8 to 2.3 mm. long, brown; radicle superior. 

 Middle and southerly parts of the Great Basin, in the warmer districts, in strongly 

 alkaline clay soils ; southwestern Wyoming and northern Utah to southwestern Colorado, 

 western Texas, northern Arizona, and southern Nevada. Type locality, on the desert 

 plains of southern Wyoming or northern Utah. Collections: Fort Bridger, Wyoming, 

 July, 1873, Porter (Or); type collection, "Wyoming-Nevada deserts," 1872, Gray (Gr); 

 Marysvale, Utah, June 5, 1894, Jones (UC) ; along San Juan River, near Bluffs, Utah, 

 Rydberg and Garrett 9930 (NY, US); Green River, Utah, Jones 5481 (Herb. Jones, type of 

 A. cornuta Jones, minor variation 2); near San Rafael River, Utah, Hall IIO4O (UC); 

 Naturita, southwestern Colorado, Payson 2327 (UC); El Paso, Texas, September 10, 

 1884, Jones (Gr); Ojo Alamo, San Juan County, New Mexico, Hall 11134 (UC) ; Billings, 

 Arizona, October 8, 1884, Jones (Herb. Jones); Chalcedony Park, first and second petri- 

 fied forests, Arizona, Hall 11155, 11163 (UC); Las Vegas, southern Nevada, June, 1915, 

 Brandegee (UC); Caliente, southern Nevada, August 27, 1912, Jones (UC). Additional 

 localities represented by specimens in the Jones Herbarium at Salt Lake City are the 

 following, all in Utah: Marvine, Myton, Westwater. 



MINOR VARIATIONS AND SYNONYMS. 



1. Atriplex argentea var. cornuta Jones, Contr. West. Bot. 11: 21, 1903.— This is merely a reduction 

 of the earlier A. cornuia. The suggested connection with A. argentea can not be accepted, since the bracts, 

 when not modified by appendages, are plainly of the truncata type and not at all like those of argentea. (See 

 under cornuta of this list.) 



2. A. CORNUTA Jones, Proc. Calif. .4cad. II, 5: 718, 1895. — This is exactly the .same as A. saccaria, as deter- 

 mined after an earlier comparison of the types, except that the fruiting bracts are covered with long appendages. 

 Complete type material of cornuia is not at hand at this writing, but in specimens from the type locality, and 

 indicated by Jones as cornuta (Green River, May 23, 1895), the bracts vary from large and bur-like, as described 

 for cornuta, to narrow, cuneate, and smooth-faced. The presence of these cuneate bracts indicates very 

 clearly that cornuta is the same as saccaria and that both have a connection with truncata rather than with 

 argentea. Jones once reduced his species to a variety of the latter, but aside from the character just mentioned, 

 it differs also in the cordate leaves and in the constantly better development of the staminate inflorescence. 



3. A. EXPANSA CORNUTA Standley, N. Am. Fl. 21:45, 1916, as synonym. This combination was due 

 merely to an oversight. The combination intended by Jones is the one given under No. 1 of this list. 



4. A. TRUNCATA var. SACCARIA Jones, Contr. West. Bot. 1 1 : 20, 1903. — The reduction is made without 

 comment. The reasons for retaining saccaria in specific rank will be given under Relationships. 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



Either this species is a direct development from A. truncata, or the two have evolved 

 from a common stock after this had become separated from all other Atriplexes. This 

 conclusion results from the close similarity in normal fruits. In the present species 

 these fruiting bracts often are so densely covered with long, horn-like projections and 

 cristate outgrowths that their original or primitive shape is entirely hidden. However, 

 other bracts can be found, usually if not always on the same plant, which have not 

 developed these appendages, and such bracts are practically identical with those of 

 truncata. The peculiar cuneate shape occurs nowhere in the genus outside of the truncata 

 group. The reduction of the free margin to a very narrow border across the truncate 

 summit also is unique. On the other hand, the differences between A. saccaria and 

 A. truncata are sufficient to justify the retention of both. The former never assumes 



