A. CORONATA. 289 



(Herb. Jepson, type of A. coronata notatior, Jepson, minor variation 1); same collection, 

 Hall 1800 (US, same variation); San Jacinto Valley, Vasey 549 (Gr, US, type collection 

 of A. sordida Standley, minor variation 4). 



MINORiVARIATIONS AND SYNONYMS. 



1. Atriplex coronata var. notatior Jepson, Fl. Calif. 437, 1914.— Sides of the bracts copiously toothed- 

 crested, the fruits thus globose in outline, otherwise as in the typical form. Described from specimens gathered 

 at San Jacinto Lake, California. These bracts exhibit the extreme development of appendages, but they 

 are approached by bracts of other collections in which almost all degrees of intergradation occur (e. g., Hall 

 11020, UC). The variability of this feature in the closely related A. argentea is illustrated in plate 44. 



2. A. coronata var. verna Jepson, Fl. W. Middle Calif. 179, 1901. — Based on A. verna, which see. 



3. A. ELEGANs var. coronata Jones, Contr. West. Bot. 12 :76, 1908. — Although coronata and elegam belong 

 to the same major group, there is no apparent reason for assuming that they are any closer to each other than 

 either one is to any of several other species. The bracts are much less strongly compressed and never approach 

 the evenness of dentation so characteristic of elegans. The suggestion that the plants may sometimes be 

 biennial does not receive support from extensive field observations. 



4. A. sordida Standley, N. Am. Fl. 21 :47, 1916. — This is a very doubtful form because of the incomplete 

 nature of the type, the middle and lower leaves being unknown. Possibly it is a variant from A. cordulata 

 with exceptionally blunt bracts, but since these are broadest above the middle and there is a tendency in some 

 of the lowest leaves present to be narrowed to the base, it is probably to be referred to coronata. The type 

 is a piece from apparently a large bushy plant with many close ascending branches; the sides of the bracts 

 smooth or with only a few small protuberances; the herbage loosely white-furfuraceous, as is common in coronata 

 and cordulata. The type locality is San Jacinto Valley, Riverside County, California (Vasey 649, US). The 

 distribution is given as Riverside and Los Angeles Counties, but no specimens from the latter can now be 

 found in the herbaria. 



5. A. VERNA Jepson, Pittonia 2:305, 1892. — A low, closely branched form with its type locality at CoUins- 

 ville, Solano County, California. More recent collections around CoUinsville include plants from 4 to 20 cm. 

 high. Similar reduced forms come from as far south as the Upper San Joaquin Valley. Plants only 8 to 12 

 cm. high, but very stout and with numerous short, stout branches have been collected on Marsh Creek, east 

 of Mount Diablo (May, 1883, Brandegee, UC). All of these characters appear to represent only ecologic re- 

 sponses, although a similarly reduced form of the closely related A. argentea seems to be confined to a par- 

 ticular geographic area (A. argentea hillmani, minor variation 1 under argentea). Seasonal conditions seem 

 to be responsible for the verna form only in part, since plants have been gathered as late as midsummer. The 

 reduction of verna to coronata was first made by its author (Jepson, Fl. Calif. 437, 1914). 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



The natural position of this species is somewhere near A. argentea and A. cordulata, 

 with both of which it has been confused at times. It differs from both in the more nearly 

 eUiptic leaves, most of which are much narrowed at base. As compared with argentea, 

 the fruiting bracts are almost always smaller, although a few of the largest are larger 

 than the smallest found on that species. The leaves, too, are much more reduced, except 

 that in a minor variation under argentea (No. 1, hillmani) they are about as in coronata. 

 If these two species are connected phylogenetically, the connection is probably through 

 this reduced form of argentea rather than through its subspecies expansa, notwithstanding 

 the overlapping geographic ranges of the latter and A. coronata. 



The relationship with A. cordulata is less direct, although the morphologic differences 

 are of such a nature that it is sometimes almost impossible to identify herbarium speci- 

 mens as the one or the other. This is partly because the upper leaves are practically the 

 same, being more or less ovate and subcordate in both, while the lower leaves are usually 

 wanting at fruiting time, when most of the collections are made. The decidedly nar- 

 rowed or rounded bases of the middle and lower leaves of coronata are very distinctive, 

 when present. The upper leaves are more narrowly ovate than in cordulata and with less 

 pronouncedly cordate bases. The fruiting bracts, too, are distinctive when carefully 

 compared and when allowance is made for deception due to unequal development of the 

 margins and appendages. In coronata the mature normal bracts are of the obovate 

 type and are broadest at or above the middle; in cordulata they are of the ovate type 



