178 CHEXOPODIACE^. 



Annuals somewhat succulent and mealy; leaves petioled, the lower at least 

 1 ill. long; bracts distinct or nearly so, ovate to rhombic. 

 Leaves mostly lanceolate; fruiting bracts 4 to 6 lines long. . 1. A. patula. 

 Leaves triangular-hastate or deltoid; fruiting bracts IJ^ to 2 lines long. . 



2. A. hastata. 



Leaves triangular-ovate; fruiting bracts 1 line long 3. A. spicata. 



Annuals, not succulent; leaves less than 1 in. long (except no. 7); bracts more 

 or less united and indurated and nut-like in fruit, the sides smooth, 

 toothed or appendaged. 

 Prostrate, decussately Ijrauched throughout; leaves mostly less than IJ^ lines 



long i. A. depressa. 



Erect or ascending, not decussately branched throughOTit. 



Leaves cordate-ovate, sessile ^. A. cardulata. 



Leaves oblong-lanceolate to ovate, short petiolate or mostly sessile. . . 



6. A. coronata. 

 Leaves broadly or deltoid-ovate, the lower petiolate; plant 2 to 3^ ft. high. 



7. A. expansa. 

 Perennials. 



Interior species of alkaline flats. 



Diffuse; leaves mostly dentate. . . . . 8. ^. bi-acteosa. 



Erect and rather rigid; leaves entire 9. ^. fruticulosa. 



Seaboard species. 



Stems prostrate, wiry; fruiting bracts membranous, compressed 



10. A. Califmiiica. 



Stem reclining, stout; fruiting bracts spongy, globose. . . 11. A. leucophylla. 



1. A. patula L. Stout and succulent, erect, 10 to 18 in. higli, 

 with few ascending branches; herbage green, only the growing parts 

 somewhat mealy; leaves (the lowest often opposite) lanceolate or 

 linear, sometimes v/ith hastate base; inflorescence more or less leafy at 

 base; bracts rhombic-ovate, thick and subcoriaceous, 4 to 6 lines long 

 or more. 



Salt marshes about San Francisco Bay; common. 



2. A. hastata L. Eather slender, with long (1 to 2J ft.) ascending 

 branches; herbage mealy, scarcely succulent; leaves triangular- 

 hastate or deltoid, entire or sinuate-dentate, 1 to 2 in. long, often as 

 broad or broader, on petioles 3 or 4 lines long; flowers in dense termi- 

 nal and lateral spikes 1 (or 2) in. long; fruiting bracts triangular- 

 ovate, IJ (or 2) lines long. 



Common at the edges of salt marshes about San Francisco Bay. 

 Bracts very variable as to size and either much or little toothed, or 

 entire. Lateral angles of the deltoid leaves often prolonged into 

 salient lobes. 



3. A. spicata Wats. Annual, erect, 12 to 16 in. high; herbage 

 scurfy, the stem below glabrate; leaves triangular-ovate, J to 1 in. or 

 more long, irregularly dentate or entire, cuspidate, on petioles 1 to 6 

 lines long; inflorescence a panicle of spikes; flowers androgynous, the 

 clusters dense on the often long (J to 3 J in.) spikes; staminate calyx 

 4-sepalous; bracts of pistillate flowers nearly concealed by the male 

 flowers, ovate, acute, coherent at base, free at apex, in fruit little 

 enlarged, and about 1 line long. 



Low alkaline tracts bordering the Sacramento Kiver marshes near 

 Main Prairie, Solano County, Jepson, July 5, 1891, and southward to 

 Livermore, Greene. The leaves of seedlings and of the young plant 

 coarsely and irregularly sinuate-toothed. Spikes sometimes very 



