r.OTANICAL r.EroRT. 



447 



channeled on the npper surface, and keeled on the lower one, at least toward the hase, 

 leaving a triangular scar after falling off. Tliey are ^-1 inch, rarely as much as l.J 

 inches long, and I line, or sometimes, in the n])per half, oven 1 lino, widcj in 3'oungand 

 vigorous shoots, I have seen the leaves flatter, shorter, and broader, almost lanceolate. 

 Their sui-fiice usnall}' is jDcrfectlj glabrous; in specimens from Carson Lake, however, 

 I find the younger leaves covered with a rough and sometimes brancjied pubescence. 

 The leaves are sometimes on the lower part of the branches opposite, but cunnnonly 

 alternating in f order. The staminate and pistillate flowers are both very impeifect, 

 but very different in their arrangement and structure; th«.'y usually occur on the same 

 plant, though some plants seem to bear scarcely any but staminate, others only pistil- 

 late, flowers. Tlie staminate flowers are cro^^'ded into a deciduous spike or amcnt, 

 terminating the branches. Tin's spike is, before the flowers open, 3-5 lines long and 

 1| lines thick, and very compact, exhibiting only the rhombic surfaces of the scales; 

 afterward it elongates to the length of 5-9 lines, showing the deciduous anthers under 

 and between the separated scales. The spike consists of 25-35 peltate angular scales, 



pointed at the upper end, which cover 3-5 broadly o^■al anthers, sessile on th(; rhachis, 

 ^ hne long, 2-celled, opening laterally. The fertile flowers are usually solitary in the 

 axils of the leaves and sessile; in some specimens, I flnd a secondary flower just below 

 the primary one, and sometimes even below a branch, spriiiging from the same axil ; 

 sometimes they are aggregated on abbreviated branchlets, forming irregular clusters. 

 Tlie flower consists of a tubular calyx with an inconspicuous rim, investing the lower 

 half of the ovary, which is terminated by two unerpial subulate stigmas, lateral in 

 regard to the stem. In the fruit, this rim is enlarged to a broad, circular, spreading 

 wing, 3-5 lines in diameter, green or sometimes red, which surrounds the upper third 

 of the fruit. The flattened vertical seed, inclosed in the membranaceous utriculus, Is' 

 about 1 line in diameter, and contains a spiral embr3-o without an albumen, as already- 

 demonstrated and figured by Professor Torrey in Frdmont's Report. ' 



The Grreasewood is found in flower from June to Auirust. 



lie form from Carson Lake seems to be distinguished not only by the pubesce: 

 younger parts of the plant, but also by its more squarrose gTOwth, its subd 

 -ers, and its aggregated fertile flowers and fruits; but the Greasewood of ot 



localities is als( 

 truly dioccious.pl 



often subdi 



that when first described, it was considered 



Georoe Enc 



i - 



