GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 181 



ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 2 to 6 lines long, sessile, or 

 narrowed at base into a very short petiole; staminate flowers in termi- 

 nal spikes; pistillate flowers in axillarj' clusters; fruiting bracts mem- 

 branous, ovate, acute, entire, loosely closed over the utricle, but not 

 united, IJ lines long or less. 



Not uncommon on sandy beaches from Point Eeyes and about San 

 Prancisco Bay, southward to Santa Cruz, Setehell, and Santa Monica, 

 Alderson. Apr.-May. Eoots cylindrical or fusiform, J to 1 in. 

 thick and 1} to 4 in. long. 



11. A. leucophylla Dietr. Stems prostrate, densely light brown- 

 scurfy, 1 to several ft. long, often somewhat woody at base, with 

 usually many short ascending branches; leaves thick, orbicular to 

 •elliptic or elliptic-ovate, 4 to 8 lines long, sessile, 3-nerved; calyx 

 rather large, 5-cleft; staminate clusters in a dense terminal spike J to 

 1 in. long; pistillate flowers 2 or 3 together in axillary clusters; fruit 

 globose or nearly so, IJ to 2 lines long, with the bracts completely 

 united and marginless (except at the apex where there is a small 

 ovate double wing) and the sides commonly with two (or several) 

 warty projections. 



Seabeaohes, very common; San Francisco and southward. Said by 

 Greene to be dicecious; it may sometimes be. Tips of the ovate 

 wing of the bract commonly spreading. 



6. ALLENROLFEA 0. Kuntze. 



An alkaline shrub with alternate leafless jointed branches; the 

 branchlets fleshy and green with short scale-like leaves. Flowers 

 perfect, arranged spirally by threes in a crowded spike, in the axils 

 of fleshy subsessile bracts. Calyx of 4 (or 5) concave carinate 

 imbricated sepals, more or less united. Stamens 1 or 2, with slender 

 filaments at length exserted. Qvary oblong, axial; styles 2, rarely 3, 

 ■commonly distinct. Pericarp membranous, free from the vertical 

 oblong seed. Embryo green, nearlj' surrounding the rather copious 

 albumen. (Named for Allen Kolfe, a member of the botanical staff at 

 Kbw, England.) 



1. A. occidentalis O. Kuntze. Kern Greasewood. Erect, 

 diffusely branched, 4 ft. high or less; vestiges of leaves very short, 

 broadly triangular and amplexicaul, acute, often nearly obsolete; 

 spikes numerous, sessile or nearly so, cylindrical, 3 to 10 lines long; 

 bracts rhomboidal; flowers crowded, slightly exserted; calyx becom- 

 ing spongy and enclosing the fruit.— (Spirostachys occidentalis Wats.) 



Alkaline soil in the Livermore Pass, Setehell and Jepson, 1896; 

 abundant in strongly alkaline soil about Byron Springs, Davy, 1898. 

 Frequent in the Great Basin and upper San Joaquin but of rare 

 occurrence in western California. 



7. SALICORNIA L. Samphire. Glasswort. 

 Low saline very succulent plants, ours herbs, with leafless 

 jointed stems and opposite branches. Inflorescence spicate-oylin- 

 drical. Flowers perfect, immersed in the hollows of the thickened 



