A. LINIFOLIA — A. FRUTICULOSA. 309 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



Although sharply set off from all of its allies, this species clearly stands next to A. 

 pentandra muricata, from which it differs especially in the elongated linear entire leaves, 

 in the uniformly well developed staminate inflorescence, and in the marked tendency 

 towards dioecism. In the last feature linijolia approaches barclayana, but in other 

 respects, and especially in the bracts, these two are very unlike. It is probable that 

 both stand near the phylogenetic connection between the group of monoecious herba- 

 ceous species and the dioecious shrubby ones. 



ECOLOGY AND USES. 



Nothing is known of the ecology and uses of this Mexican species. 

 31. ATRIPLEX FRUTICULOSA Jepson, Pittonia 2:306, 1892. Plate 48. Ballscale. 



Spreading or nearly erect perennial herb from a woody base or rarely the stems also 

 woody, the plant then suffruticose, 0.5 to 3 dm. high, the stems when procumbent a 

 few cm. to 3 dm. long; branches slender, terete, not grooved or striate, coarsely furfura- 

 ceous, glabrate and then stramineous or reddish, the bark becoming dark and fissured 

 on old woody stems; leaves all alternate, mostly short-petioled, the upper ones sessile, 

 narrowly elliptic or linear-lanceolate, acute at each end, 0.5 to 1.5 cm. long, 0.2 to 0.4 

 cm. wide, entire, moderately thick but not succulent, gray on both faces with a dense 

 permanent scurf, soft, 1 -nerved; flowers monoecious, the staminate glomerules in short 

 terminal interrupted spikes, these commonly reduced to 1 or 2 dense globose clusters 

 at the end of each branch or the spike rarely up to 6 cm. long, the pistillate flowers mixing 

 slightly with the lower staminate and continuing down the stems in the leaf -axils; 

 perianth apparently always 5-cleft in the staminate flowers, wanting in the pistillate; 

 fruiting bracts sessile or subsessile, not compressed or only slightly flattened, united to 

 above the middle, orbicular-obovate or subglobose, 3 to 4 mm. long and nearly as 

 broad, narrowly margined and acutely dentate from the middle upwards, the sides neither 

 strongly nerved nor reticulated, tooth-crested or muricate or sometimes smooth and 

 then with a suggestion of longitudinal nerves, indurate; seed 1.4 to 1.7 mm. long, dark 

 brown; radicle superior. 



Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, Cahfornia. Type locaHty, alkaline soil near 

 Little Oak, Solano County, California. Collections: South of Willows, Glenn County, 

 Hall 11003 (UC); near Norman, Glenn County, May 26, 1898, Davy (UC); type collec- 

 tion, August 16, 1892, Jepson (Herb. Jepson, herbaceous to the base); Wilson Creek, 

 near Vacaville, September 30, 1893, Jepson (Herb. Jepson, suffruticose, the woody stems 

 4 mm. thick) ; Livermore Pass, May, 1898, Davy (UC) ; near Crows Landing, Stanislaus 

 County, Hall 11016 (UC); 10 km. south of Dos Palos, Fresno County, Hall 11022 (UC); 

 5.5 km. south of Mendota, Fresno County, Hall 11762 (UC); Laton, Fresno County, 

 Kearney 25 (US). 



RELATIONSHIPS. 



This and A. coulteri are very closely related, as will be explained more fully under the 

 latter species. Taken together they represent a branch of the pentandra line which has 

 reached farther to the northwest than any other, except perhaps bradeosa. They differ 

 from other western members of the group in the notable reduction in the size of the 

 leaves. These are consistently entire. The present species differs from bracteosa also 

 in the perennial habit, absence of a pronounced odor, and other features. 



The flower and fruit characters of A. fruticulosa are remarkably constant, as also are 

 those of the foliage. On the other hand, the habit is extremely variable. The type 

 collection includes plants that are so slender and erect that they appear to be annual 

 and others in which the herbaceous stems arise from a short, woody base, the plant in 



