AUBiPLEX CHENOPODIAOE^ 695 



in the axils. Staminate flowers bractless, consisting of a 3-5-parted 

 calyx and an equal number of stamens and with or without a rudi- 

 mentary ovary. Pistillate flowers subtended by 2 bractlets which 

 enlarge in fruit and are more or less united: calyx none. Ovary 

 globose or ovoid. Stigmas 2. Utricle completely or partially 

 enclosed by the enlarged bractlets. Seeds vertical or rarely hori- 

 zontal. Embryo annular. 



§ 1 Annuals : somewhat succulent. Fruiting bracts herbace- 

 ous or coriaceous, fifee or nearly so. Flowers androgynous or sub- 

 dioecious in leafy or naked spikes. Radicle inferior or somewhat 

 ascending. 



* Leaves usnally more or leas' hastate, the lowest opposite: bracts ovate- 

 rhombic to tiiangular or hastate, often crested, the margins foliaceons, 

 entire or toothed, 



A. patula L. Sp. 1053. Glabrous and dark green or somewhat scurfy 

 above: stem much branched, diffuse, ascending or erect, 1-3 feet long: leaves 

 lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, slender-petioled or the uppermost nearly ses- 

 sile, entire, sparingly toothed or 3-lobed below the middle, acuminate at the 

 apex, narrowed or cuneate at base, 1-5 inches long: flowers in panicled in- 

 terrupted mostly leafless spikes and usually also capitate in the upper axils: 

 fruiting bractlets united only at the base, fleshy, triangular or rhombic, 3-4 

 lines wide their sides often tuberoled. In saline places mostly along the coast, 

 Alaska to California: also on the Atlantic coast and Europe. 



* * Leaves petioled: bracts ovate to linear, mostly 4-6 lines long, 

 entire anid not margined nor appendaged^ only the apex foliaceous. 



A. zosteraefolia Watson Proc. ^m. Acad, ix, 109. Weak and slender* 

 ascending, a foot high or less, diffusely branched, glabrous or slightly scurfy: 

 leaves fleshy, mostly opposite, linear, 1-4 inches long, 1)^ line broad: flowers 

 in axillary clusters and in short axillary androgynous spikes: calyx deeply 5- 

 cleft: bracts linear, somewhat unequal, 1-2 lines becoming 4-6 lines long, free, 

 fleshy: immature seed less than half a line broad: radicle, slightly ascending: 

 mature fruit unknown. Collected only by Scouler at the Straits of De Fuca . 



§ 2 Annuals with alternate or sometimes opposite leaves. 

 Radicle superior. 



A. pnsilla Watson 1. c. 110. Hoary-scurfy throughout: stem slender, 

 2-6 inches high, diffusely much-branched, leafy; leaves. broadly ovate to ob- 

 long-lanceolate, 2-4 lines long, acute, sessile, entire, mostly crowded on the 

 branches: flowers minute, subsolitary or one of each sex in the axils: calyx 

 deeply 5-cleft: bracts ovate, half a line long in fruit, acutish, not foliaceously 

 margined nor appendaged: style exserted: seeds with thin transparent testa. 

 On alkaline plains, southeastern Oregon to Nevada. 



A. trnncata Gray Proc. Am. Acad, viii, 398. Bather stout, erect and 

 mostly striate, 1-3 feet high, sparingly branched: leaves broadly ovate, 18 lines 

 long, truncate or cordate at baiej acute, sessile or the lower shortly petioled, 

 spikes more or less leafy : fruiting bracts coriaceous, 1)4 lines long, ovate-ob- 

 long sessile or shortly pedicelled, united up to the truncate herbaceous sum- 

 mit, which is obtusely 3-toothed the sides rarely subtuberculate: calyx mostly 

 3-4-parted. Oregon to Nevada, 



A. argentea Nutt. Gen. i, 198. Grayish-scurfy or nearly glabrous: 

 stem erect, ascending or„ decumbent, 6-8 inches high, diffusely branched 



