^24: CHENOPODiACE^. [Atriplcx. 



liuear-oblong, nearly erect, dull glaucous-green, smooth and fleshy, tapering into 

 short petioles, entire or here and there sinuato-denticulate, often, as are the upper 

 part of the stem and branches, with a scale-like mealiness beneath. Flowers in 

 roundish sessile clusters that are partly distinct and partly crowded on the upper 

 portion of the branches, forming long, simple or compound, interrupted leafy 

 spikes, disposed in a paniculate manner, each head or cluster containing from 4 or 

 5 to 12 or more flowers (Bab.), and powdered with crystalline grains: the 

 lower clusters of each spike are usually distinct or interrupted, and furnished with 

 a leaf or bract at the base, those at and towards the summit approximate, or even 

 crowded and leafless or nearly so. Staminate flowers without even the rudiment 

 of a germen. Anthers reddish. Valves of the seed-bearing perianth usually 

 divergent in fruit, thick and fleshy, ovato-rhomboidal, sinuato-dentate or edged 

 with tubercles, the apex acute, muricato-tuberculate at the back, two of the 

 tubercles generally larger and more prominent than the rest, sometimes cleft or 

 double. Seed rather large, orbicular, much compressed, reddish black, its surface 

 faintly waved or wrinkled, covered with the close filmy pericarp. 



" Distinguished from the next by the form of its open perigone and leaves 

 usually entire." — Bab. Man. 



2. A. marina, L. Marine Orache. " Stem erect, leaves ovato- 

 lanceolate irregularly toothed or rarely entire, perigone of the 

 fruit obcordato-triangular obtuse tubercled on the back closed." — 

 Bah. Man. p. 268. A. littoralis B, Br. Fl. p. 350. 



With the last, and probably not rare, but, having till lately been accustomed to 

 look on it as a tooth-leaved variety of A. littoralis, I find no station recorded for 

 it apart from the last. "i^i. July — Sept. ©." — Bab. 



" Distinguished by its toothed leaves and form of the closed perigone. These 

 two (A. littoralis and A. marina) never have lobed leaves like the succeeding spe- 

 cies." — Bab. 



Perhaps not specifically distinct from A. littoralis, but the closed perigone 

 instead of the open one (when in seed) of the latter may, if constant, be allowed 

 to weigh in favour of their separation. 



3. A. angustifolia, Sm. Spreading Narroio-leaved Orache. 

 " Stem erect or prostrate, leaves lanceolate entire, lower leaves 

 with 2 ascending lobes from a wedge-shaped base, perigone of the 

 fruit rhomboidal acute, lateral angles smooth on the back and 

 longer than the fruit and collected into nearly simple interrupted 

 spikes, seeds smooth and shining." — Bab. Man. p. 268. E. B. t. 

 1774. Br. Fl. p. 349. 



In waste ground, fields, gardens, by roadsides, &c. ; verv common everywhere. 

 "PL July— October. Q:'—Bab. 



Root whitish, slender, in the larger plants copiously branched and fibrous. 

 Stem erect (or prostrate, Bab.), more or less quadrangular or somewhat rounded, 

 emitting many opposite and alternate, long, slender branches from the very base, 

 the lowermost decumbent, prostrate or ascending, those higher up widely spread- 

 ing or patulous. Leaves shortly stalked, bluish or grayish green, thin and flexile, 

 lanceolate or linear lanceolate, entire and wavy on the margins, the uppermost 

 very narrow ; lowermost more or less hastate, with one or a pair of tooth-like lobes 

 pointing forwards a little above their wedge-shaped base, the rest of the leaf being 

 either entire, toothed or sinuate : sometimes all the leaves are entire, or a few of 

 the middle ones alone are slightly lobed and toothed. Flowers in small, roundish, 

 sessile clusters, forming slender, axillary and terminal, naked (or in their lower 

 part slightly leafy), simple or subsimple, interrupted spikes, the highest clusters of 

 which are more or less crowded, the lower in the longer spikes considerably wide 

 apart. Perigones hastato-rhomboidal, the middle lobe triangular, acute and elon- 

 gated, entire, the two lateral angles acute, prominent and pointing forwards, the 



