A. COULTERI — A. DECUMBENS. 311 



inflorescence. On this basis it might be taken as the less primitive, but, on the other 

 hand, the bracts are almost always longitudinally 3-nerved and reticulate-veiny, these 

 features indicating a connection with A. pentandra muricata, which represents the com- 

 mon ancestral stock. The texture and degree of compression of the bracts are about 

 the same in coulteri and muricata, while in fruticulosa the bracts are but slightly if at 

 all compressed, therefore subgloboid, and firmly indurated. These thick and hard 

 fruiting bracts furnish perhaps the best means of distinguishing fruticulosa from coulteri. 

 Also, the strongly veined and reticulate bracts of the latter usually serve as a dis- 

 tinguishing feature, but in a few specimens, such as the types themselves, the nerves 

 and reticulations are obscure. 



ECOLOGY AND USES. 

 Atriplex coulteri is similar to A. fruticulosa in its ecological relations, but it occurs 

 on the coastal slope and the islands of southern California. It has no known uses, apart 

 from incidental grazing. 



33. ATRIPLEX DECUMBENS Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. 12:275, 1877. Plate 49. 



Prostrate perennial herb, slightly woody below, the stems much branched through- 

 out and forming tangled mats often several meters across and 3 to 4 dm. deep; branches 

 tough and flexuous, terete, densely white-scurfy and the scurf either persistent or 

 deciduous, the stems then stramineous, the bark smooth, except on old portions near 

 the base; leaves very numerous, nearly all opposite, sessile, broadly elliptic to ovate, 

 narrowly rounded to the base, acute at apex, 0.8 to 2 cm. long, 0.4 to 1 cm. wide (rarely 

 up to 3.5 cm. long by 1.5 cm. wide), entire, thick, somewhat succulent when fresh, 

 white on both sides with a dense permanent scurf, soft, 1-nerved; flowers dioecious, 

 the staminate glomerules in naked moniliform, terminal spikes 1 to 10 cm. long, the 

 pistillate ones in small clusters in the leaf-axils; perianth 5-cleft in the staminate flowers, 

 wanting in the pistillate; fruiting bracts sessile, compressed, united to the middle, 

 ovate or rhombic, 5 to 8 mm. long, 5 to 6 mm. broad, with broad free margins above 

 the middle, entire or erosely denticulate, the sides neither appendaged nor nerved; 

 seed about 1 mm. long, light brown; radicle superior. Pericarp continued as a flat, 

 broad sheath which incloses the thickened bases of the stigmas. 



Proximity of the Pacific Ocean, from Santa Barbara County, California, to San Quentin 

 Bay, Lower California, including the adjacent islands (except the Santa Cruz Islands, 

 where the species is not known). Type locality, near San Diego, California. Collections, 

 all from southern and Lower California: Santa Barbara, near the beach, September, 

 1882, Bingham (Gr); Long Beach, July, 1896, McClatchie (UC); Newport Bay, Los 

 Angeles County, 1882, Nevin (Gr); Santa Catalina Island (Catalina Cove), Pendleton 

 H27 (UC); San Clemente Island, Trask 32 (US); San Nicholas Island, April, 1897, 

 Trask (US) ; La JoUa, San Diego County, Clements 58 (UC) ; type collection, near San 

 Diego, 1875, Palmer 334 (Gr, NY); borders of the bay near Old Town, San Diego, 

 Abrams S454 (DS, Gr, NY, UC, US); National City, San Diego County, Hall 11214 

 (UC); San Quentin Bay, Lower California, Palmer 740 (NY). 



SYNONYM. 



1. Atriplex watsoni Nelson, in Abrams, Fl. Los Angeles, 128, April 5, 1904; Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17:99, 

 April 9, 1904.— This name is in accordance with the American Code. According to the International Code, 

 however, the name A. decumbens Watson is available for this species, since the earher A. decumbens Roemer 

 and Schultz is synonymous with the still older A. prostrata R. Brown, an Australian species. 



