410 CHENOPODIACE^. (gOOSEFOOT FAMILY.) 



blatlder-Iike, with a toothed or torn margin, at length spongy and narrowly 

 wing-bordered, enclosing the flattened thin utricle. Stamens 1 or 2. Styles 2, 

 united at base. Seed vertical. Embryo thick, conduplicate : no albumen. — 

 Low saline plants, with succulent leafless jointed stems, and opposite branches ; 

 the flower-bearing branchlets forming the spikes. (Name composed of sal, salt, 

 and comu, a honi ; saline plants with horn-like branches.) 



§ 1. Annuals : spikes very thick and fleshy : flowers and seeds deeply immersed. 



1. S. herbieea, L. Erect or at length spreading (6' -12' high), jrrcen ,• 

 scales obscure and very blunt, making a truncate barely emarginate termination 

 of the joints of stem or elongated spike ; middle flower much higher than the 

 lateral ones ; seed oval or oblong. — Salt marshes of the coast and interior salt 

 springs. Aug. -Oct. (Bu.) 



2. S. Virginica, L. (pi. Clayt.) Erect, less branched, naked below 

 (2' -9' high), turning red in age; spike shorter and thicker; scales mncronate- 

 pointed and conspicuous, especially when dry ; middle flower little higher than 

 tlie lateral ones ; seed round-oval. ( S. mucronata, Zajasca? \818, Bigelow, &ni 

 Ed. 2.) — Salt marshes, coast of Virginia to Maine. Sept., Oct. (Eu. ?) 



§ 2. Perennial : spikes less thick, and flowers less immersed; middle one hardly higher. 



3. S. frutiebsa, L., var. ambigua. (S. ambigua, Michx.) Numerous 

 tufted stems (3' -12' long) decumbent or ascending from a hard and rather 

 woody creeping base or rootstock, greenish, turning lead-colored ; the cylindri- 

 cal joints rather strongly notched at the end ; seed round-oval. — Sandy wet 

 beaches, &c., Massachusetts to Virginia and southward. Aug. -Oct. (Eu.) 



7. SU.ffi!DA, Eorskal. Sea Elite. 



Flowers perfect, solitary or clustered in the axils of the leaves. Calyx 5- 

 parted, not appendaged, fleshy, becoming somewhat inflated and closed over the 

 fruit (utricle). Stamens 5. Stigmas 2 or 3. Seed vertical or horizontal, with 

 a flat-spiral embryo, dividing the scanty albumen (when there is any) into 2 

 portions. — Fleshy maritime plants, with alternate nearly terete linear leaves. 

 (An Arabic name.) Chenopodina, Moquin was founded for those species, 

 like ours, which have horizontal seeds, — a wholly insufficient and inconstant 

 difference. 



1 . S. maritima, Dumortier. Annual, smooth, diffasely much branched ; 

 leaves slender (1' long), acute; calyx-lobes keeled; stigmas 2 ; seed horizontal. 

 (Chenopodina man'tima, Moquin.) — Salt marshes of the sea-shore, and on the 

 northwest plains. Aug. (Eu. ) 



9. SALSOLA, X,. Saltwort. 



Flowers perfect, with 2 bractlets. Calyx ,5-parted, persistent and enclosing 

 the depressed fruit in its base ; its divisions at length horizontally winged on the 

 back, the wings forming a broad and circular scarious border. Stamens mostly 

 5. Styles 2. Seed horizontal, without albumen, filled by the embryo, which is 

 coiled in a conical spiral (cochleate). — Herbs, or slightly shrubby branching 

 plants of the sea-shore, with fleshy and rather terete or awl-shaped leaves, and 



