GOOSKFOOT FAMILY. 179 



loose. The species occasionally exhibits a tendency to become 

 dioecious. Var. Lagunita. Very slender, simple, s'to 8 in. high; 

 fruiting bracts IJ lines long. — Lagoon Valley, Solano Co., Sept. 1891. 



4. A. depressa Jepson. Annual, prostrate, grayish-scurfy; 

 stems slender, 1 to 4 in. long, decussately branched throughout; 

 leaves opposite, sessile, broadly ovate, acute, a line or two long; 

 flowers in the axils of the opposite leaves in clusters of 4; these and 

 the subtending leaves crowded on the branchlets, the internodes at 

 time of flowering a line long or less; fruiting bracts ovate-hastate, 

 acute, wingless, or the pair of hastate lobes representing the wing. 



Low saline spots, base of the Pelejo Hills, Solano Co. Eeniark- 

 ahle among our species for its decussate branching and prostrate 

 habit. The inflorescence is andi-ogynous, commonly 2 staminate and 

 2 pistillate flowers in each cluster. The bracts are seldom partially 

 distinct even at the apex, the sides smooth. 



5. A. cordulata Jepson. Widely and oppositely branched at base, 

 alternately and sparingly so above, 7 to 15 in. high, the branches 

 commonly virgate, erect or ascending; herbage scurfy throughout; 

 leaves sessile, cordate-ovate, 3 or 4 lines long; flower-clusters in all 

 the axils, consisting of both staminate and pistillate flowers; calyx 

 toraentosely-scurfy and deeply 4-cleft; fruiting bracts semi-orbicular, 

 IJ to 2 lines broad, much compressed,' sessile or short-stipitate, the 

 margin with acute teeth, the terminal tootli commonly the largest, 

 the sides smooth or the lower bearing one or more tooth-like pro- 

 jections. 



Neiir Vacaville, Solano Co.; low plains of the San Joaquin south 

 of Stockton. July-Aug. The androgynous clusters are commonly 

 of 3 staminate and 3 to 5 pistillate flowers. 



6. A. coronata Wats. Kather stout, scurfy, 1 ft. high; leaves 

 oblong-ovate, the larger 8, the smaller 4 lines long, contracted at base 

 to a short petiole, or sessile; flowei-s in axillary clusters, androgynous; 

 bracts of the pistillate flower sessile or shortly pedicellate, strongly 

 compressed, surrounded by a gash-toothed herbaceous margin nearly 

 as broad as the body, the sides rarely muriculate. 



First collected in 1862 by Brewer (no. 1189) in or near Livermore 

 Pass; nothing quite like the original specimens have since been dis- 

 covered, but these ai-e merely robust branches broken off a young 

 plant. I take A. vema Jepson to be the same specifically and the 

 plants so called are now to be known as 



Var. verna. Annual, low, only 3 to 6 in. high, sometimes rather 

 stout, white-scurfy throughout; branches simple or nearly so, two or 

 three pairs opposite at base, the upper alternate; leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate or ovate, sessile, 3 to 5 lines long; flowers androgynous in 

 the axils of the leafy stems, two or three in a cluster; calyx deeply 

 4-cleft; stamens 4; fruiting bracts orbicular, compressed, 2 lines long, 

 the margins crenate-dentate. — CoUinsville, Jepson; Antioch, Mrs. 

 Brandegee; and southward to saline flats near San Felipe, Santa Clara 

 Co., Setche.ll and Jepson. May-June. 



7. A. expansa Wats. Annual, erect, much branched, 2 to 3J ft. 



