MACLOSKIE : CHENOPODIACE^E. 37 I 



3. LERCHEA MARITIMA (L.) O. Ktze. 



Stem herbaceous, diffuse branching, the branches erect or prostrate, 

 glabrous. Leaves long, plane on upper face, convex on under surface, 

 basally dilating, often acutish, subflexuous, fleshy, glabrous, upper leaves 

 shorter. Flowers axillary, sessile, 2-3-glomerate ; fruiting calyx inflated, 

 carinate, greenish. Seed rostellate, with acute margin, distinctly punctu- 

 late-rugose, shining. Annual. 



(Old World) ; N. Patagon., in saline swamps near Rio Negro. 



4. L. PATAGONICA Speg. (sub 



Glabrous, annual herb, prostrate-effuse, sparingly branching, with remote 

 nodes. Leaves alternate, linear, acutish, flowers sessile in the axils, soli- 

 tary or sparsely glomerate. 



S. Patagon., in inundated maritime sands at Isla de Los Leones, in 

 estuary of Rio Sta. Cruz. 



12. HALOPHYTUM Spegazzini (Nova Addenda ad Floram 

 Patagonicam, p. 152, Bonaria, 1902). 



Char. Chenopodiacea, chenopodiea, cyclolobea, salicorniea, endo- 

 cladantha. 



Flowers unisexual, crowded in acrogenous or pleurogynous, unisexual 

 strobili, at the axes of the bracts concealed in hollows of the rachis. 

 Perianth of male flowers membranaceous, 4-leaved, the leaves linear, 

 spathulate, free from the base, subimbricate, the lateral pair external, the 

 median pair internal ; filaments very slender, subulate ; anthers linear, 

 versatile, 2-locular, extrorse ; no staminodes or rudiment of ovary. Peri- 

 anth of female flowers none ; ovary immersed in excavations of the axis, 

 closely applied but not adnate ; style subulate filiform, acutish, exsert, 

 scarcely papillose ; ovary i-locular and i-ovulate, the ovule on a short, 

 basal, axile funicle. Fruit nut-like, on the subglobosely thickened, woody 

 rachis of the strobili, which is mostly denuded of bracts ; pericarp mem- 

 branaceous ; endocarp osseous ; mesocarp hirsute-spongy ; fruit becoming 

 polystichously plurilocular, and the locules unequal by pressure, i -seeded. 

 Seed typically lenticular-reniform, minutely rostellate, the testa fuscous, 

 adnate to the locular walls ; embryo annular, terete, surrounding the pul- 

 verulent-amylaceous endosperm, apex of radicle and of cotyledons superior. 



