salsolacejE. 55 



1. B. vuiiQABis, L. Stout, 2—4 ft. high: radical leaves often 1 ft. 

 long including the stout petiole, commonly with prominent nerves and a 

 more or less undulate margin, the outline oblong or oval: inflorescence 

 1 — 3 ft. long. — Escaped from gardens; in some places a common weed. 



3. ATRIPLEX, Pliny (Obaohb.) Herbs or shrubs, mealy or scurfy, 

 monoecious or dioecious; inflorescence axillary and glomerate, or terminal 

 and spicate or panicled. Staminate perianth braetless^ 3— 5-parted, 

 enclosing as many stamens. Pistillate fl. bibracteate, without perianth 

 or rarely with 2 — 4 distinct hyaline sepals; the bracts erect, appressed, 

 distinct or more or less united, their margins often becoming dilated, the 

 surface sometimes in age thickened, indurated and muricate. Fruit 

 compressed, utricular. Seed vertical. Embryo annular. 



* Monoecious annuals, somewhat succulent and mealy; bracts distinct or 



nearly so, ovate-oblong to broadly triangular or hastate. 



1. A. hastata, L. var. oppositifolia, Moq. Bather slender, with 

 divaricate and somewhat decumbent branches; 2—3 ft. long, or stouter 

 and erect with ascending branches; herbage mealy, not very succulent: 

 leaves triangular-hastate or deltoid, mostly entire, all the lower opposite: 

 flower-clusters small, spicate: bracts small, triangular, entire or denticu- 

 late J! in. long: seed 1 in. long, dark-colored. — Common along the 

 borders of brackish marshes at Petaluma, and elsewhere. 



2. A. pat ula, L. Stout and succulent, mostly erect, 1 ft. high, with 

 few ascending branches; herbage deep green, only the growing parts some- 

 what mealy: lowest leaves of ten opposite, broadly lanceolate, sometimes 

 with hastate base: inflorescence more or less leafy at base: bracts rhom- 

 bic-ovate, thick and subcoriaceous, often % m - l° n g- — Very common in 

 salt marshes and near beaches. 



3. A. spicata, Wats. Stout, erect, 1 — 2 feet high, sparingly branch- 

 ing, mealy: leaves alternate, rhombic-ovate, acute, coarsely and irregularly 

 sinuate-toothed, 2 in. long, attenuate to a short petiole: fl. densely 

 spicate, the 4-sepalous calyx usually staminate, but not rarely pistillate 

 and with a horizontal seed: bracts of pistillate fl. ovate, acute, little 

 enlarged in fruit, partly coherent at base, 1J£ lines long: seed black, % 

 line broad; radicle inferior. — Alkaline soil among the foothills of the 

 Mt Diablo Kange. 



* * Serbs or shrubs seldom mealy, but silvery-scurfy ; bracts mostly rounded 



and more or less completely united, naked or variously appen- 

 daged or winged, frequently hard and nul-like in fruit. 



•f- Monoecious annuals. 



4. A. verna, Jepson. Only 3 — 4 in. high; the branches simple or 



