CHENOPODIACE^E. (COOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 409 



4. ATRIPLEX, Tourn. Orache. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious; the staminate like the flowers of Chenopo- 

 dium, only sterile by the abortion of the pistil ; the fertile flowers consisting 

 simply of a naked pistil enclosed between a pair of appressed foliaeeous (ovate 

 or halberd-shaped) bracts, which arc enlarged in fruit, and sometimes united. 

 Seed vertical. Embryo coiled into a ring around the albumen. In one section, 

 to which the Garden Orache belongs, there arc also some fertile flowers with a 

 calyx, like those of Chenopodium, but without stamens, and with horizontal 

 seeds. — Herbs usually mealy or scurfy with bran-like scales, with triangular 

 or halberd-shaped angled leaves, and spiked-clustered flowers ; in summer and 

 autumn. (The ancient Latin name, of obscure meaning.) 



1. A. patula, L. Erect or diffusely spreading, annual, scurfy, green or 

 rather hoary, branching ; leaves alternate or partly opposite, petioled, varying 

 from triangular and halberd-form to lance-linear ; fruiting bracts ovate-trian- 

 gular or rhombic, entire or 1 - 2-toothed below, united to near the middle, their 

 flat faces either even or sparingly warty-muricate ; radicle inferior or some- 

 what ascending. — The two extreme forms are, Var. hastata (A. hastata, L.), ,, • 

 with the leaves nearly all triangular-halberd-shaped, entire or sparingly toothed. 

 — Var. littoralis (A. littoralis, L.), with lanceolate or linear mostly entire 

 leaves. — Salt marshes, brackish river-banks, &c, Virginia to Maine, and spar- 

 ingly on the Great Lakes, and northward. The plant on the shore is more 

 scurfy and hoary ; more inland, sometimes far from saline soil, it is greener and 

 thinner-leaved. (En.) 



2. A. arenaria, Nutt. Silvery-mealy annual, diffusely spreading ; leaves 

 oblong, narrowed at the base, nearly sessile; fruiting bracts broadly wedge- 

 shaped, united, 2-3-toothed at the summit, and with a few prickly points on 

 the sides; radicle superior. (Obione arenaria, Moquin, & Ed. 2.) — Sandy 

 beaches, Massachusetts to Virginia and southward. 



5. COfiisPEEMUM, Ant. Juss. Bug-seed. 



Flowers perfect, single and sessile in the axil of the upper leaves reduced to 

 bracts, usually forming a spike. Calyx of a single delicate sepal on the inner 

 side. Stamens 1 or 2, rarely 5. Styles 2. Fruit oval, flat, with the outer face 

 rather convex and the inner concave, sharp-margined, a caryopsis, i. e. the thin 

 pericarp adherent to the vertical seed. Embryo slender, coiled around a cen- 

 tral albumen. — Low branching annuals, with narrow linear alternate 1-nerved 

 leaves. (Name formed of icopis, a buy, and o-ntppa, seed.) 



1. C. hyssopifblium, L. Somewhat hairy when young, pale; floral 

 leaves or bracts awl-shaped from a dilated base or the upper ovate and pointed, 

 scarious-margined ; fruit wing-margined. — Sandy beaches of the Great Lakes 

 from Buffalo, a recent immigrant (G. W. Clinton), Chicago (Dr. Scammon, &c), 

 to Lake Superior and northwestward. Aug. -Oct. (Eu.) 



6. SALICORNIA, Tourn. Glasswort. Samphire. 



Flowers perfect, 3 together immersed in each hollow of the thickened upper 

 joints, forming a spike ; the two lateral sometimes sterile. Calyx small and 



M. 



