Atriplex.] chenopodiace^. 483 



below, often growing at the edge of a low muddy bank, and depending from it." 

 It is indeed difficult to point out any character from the upper part of the stem or 

 the organs of fructification discriminative of the two plants, though the root of <S. 

 radicans, which is ligneous and creeping extensively, is very different from the 

 attenuated almost fusiform one of S. herbacea, and which is of a whitish or pale 

 colour, not black as in the former. The two kinds grow intermixed in precisely 

 similar conditions of soil and situation, which seems to favour the supposition of 

 their being distinct, though, as in many other instances, so closely resembling one 

 another in those parts from whenee specific characters are usually derived, as to 

 induce a doubt of the permanency of all minor differences, however remarkable. 

 Many plants naturally annual in cold climates become occasionally perennial in 

 warmer ones ; and may it not happen in this instance that such plants of S. her- 

 bacea as have from any cause survived the first winter may acquire in the sue. 

 ceeding summer a ligneous character, enabling them to brave the rigour of 

 several returning seasons ? 



Tribe V. Atriplicem. 



" Embryo annular." " Mowers imperfect. Stem continuous.'" — 

 Br.Fl. 



VI. Atbiplex,* Lhm. Orache.f 



" Perigone of 2 more or less connected parts. Stigmas 2. Pe- 

 ricarp membranous, free. Testa crustaceous. Seed vertical, 

 attached by a lateral hilum, either near the base or by means of 

 an elongated funiculus in the middle of the side. Eadicle basal. 

 Stamens 5." — Bab. Man. 



* " Moncecious ; fern, flower bipartite." — Bab. 



1. A. littoralis, L. Grass-leaved Orache. " Stem erect, leaves 

 linear-lanceolate entire or rarely toothed, perigone of the fruit 

 ovato-rhomboid, acute toothed tubercled on the back spreading." 

 — Bab. Man. p. 268. Bab. Mem. of the Brit. Atrip, in Trans, of 

 the Edinb. Bot. Soc. p. 6. Bab. Prim. El. Sam. p. 81. E. B. t. 

 708. Sr.M. p. 349. 



On the muddy beach, upon banks and along ditches by the sea, in salt-marshes, 

 &c. Not uncommonly. -F/. July — September. 0. 



E. Med. — On the sea-beach between Ryde and Binstead, but not very abun- 

 dantly, 1844. Most abundantly on the shore between Springfield and Nettleston 

 fort. 



W. Med. — By the Medina above Cowes, at Medham brickfield. Thorness bay 

 and Newtown marshes. Under the shore nearly below Bouldner. Coast near 

 Cowes and most other parts of the coast, B. T. W. 



Root whitish, tough, composed of numerous concentric woody layers, much 

 branched and fibrous. Stem erect, sharply angular and furrowed, flexuose, com- 

 monly streaked with purple, 2 or 3 feet high, branched from the base, the branches 

 lax, divaricate, spreading or somewhat erect, the lowermost decumbent, ascending 

 and opposite, those higher up alternate. Leaves very narrow, linear-lanceolate or 



* See ' Monograph of the British Atriplices,' by Charles C. Babington, Trans, 

 of the Bot. Soc. of Edinb. i. p. 1. 



f Arroche, Fr. The English was formerly often spelt Arrach or Orrach. 



