MACLOSKIE ! CHENOPODIACE/E. 367 



8. SPIROSTACHYS S. Watson. 



Glabrous shrubs, sometimes apparently leafless, erect, branching, fleshy ; 

 the branches mostly jointed, bilaterally broadening. Strobiles of perfect 

 flowers, alternate, cylindraceous, with spirally arranged bracts, having 

 3-5 flowers in the axils. Calyx angulate upwards, 4-5-lobed or cre- 

 nate. Stamens 1-2, exsert. Ovary lagenaeform, compressed ; stigmas 2. 

 Utricle ovoid. Seed obovoid. (Fig. in Eng. & Prantl, iii, la, p. 77, M-O.) 



Species 5, i in N. W. Amer. ; others in extratrop. S. Amer. 



i. S. OLIVASCENS Speg. 



All obscurely green during life ; fuscous olivascent in sicco. Branches 

 slender, the old cinereous, the young whitish. Leaves small, fleshy, ob- 

 scurely green, broadly ovate, sessile, semiamplexicaul. Floral spikes all 

 conspicuously alternate, fuscous-green, sessile, short, elliptical or sub- 

 globose. Perigonium subtrifid, the lateral lobes acute, carinate-winged. 

 Stamens paired ; ovary glabrous ; seed sublenticular ; rostellum very small, 

 glabrous, but minutely papillose-warty. Embryo terete-hippocrepiform ; 

 radicle inferior, subparallel with the cotyledons. 



Common in salines by Rio Negro near Carmen. 



2. S. PATAGONICA (Moq.) Benth. (O. Ktze. makes this Allenrolfea.} 



Stem not jointed. Leaves alternate, semiamplexicaul, appressed, ovate- 

 obtuse; fleshy, not 3 mm. long. Strobiles thick-cylindric. Bracts like 

 the leaves, 3-flowered. Seed obovate-oblong. 



(Argentina); N. Patagon., Chubut. 



(S. patagonica is Halopeplis patagonica Moq.-Tand.) 



3. S. RITTERIANA (Moquin-Tandon sub Halostachys]. 



Stem fruticose, erect, inarticulate, branches alternate, erect-appressed. 

 Leaves alternate, semiamplexicaul, very appressed, cordate-ovate, rather 

 obtuse, scale-formed. Catkins alternate, finely pedunculate, short, ovate- 

 oblong, at length cylindrical, obtuse. 



(Hispaniola, Mendoza); Patagon., Peninsula Valdes, Chubut, and near 

 Rio Negro. Determination uncertain. A glaucous whitish shrub, the 

 leaves caducous except from the young branches. Bracts like the leaves, 

 but broader. 



