i m OHENOPODIACEAE. 



A. Stems leafy. 

 1. Leaves all opposite. 



Flowers perfect; stamens united ;it base into a perigynous disk 1. Nitrophila. 



Leaves all or mostly alternate. 

 Leaves plane, membranous or lleshy. 



Flowers perfect; calyx 5-cleft or -parted. 



Ovary partly inferior 2. Beta. 



< (vary superior 3. Chenopodium. 



Flowers perfect or pistillate; calyx urceolate, 3 to 5-toothed 4. Roubieva. 



Flowers unisexual; staminate calyx 4 or 5-parted; calyx of fertile flower none, the 



pistil enclosed by 2 bracts 5. Atriplex. 



subteret'e, linear; flowers perfect or gyno-monoecious 8. Suaeda. 



B. Stems with the leaves reduced to mere scales. 

 Flowers perfect, immersed by 3s in the depressions of a fleshy cylindrical spike and 



Spirally arranged; calyx 4' or 5-cleft; shrub with fleshy jointed alternate branchlets. . . 



6. Si' i ROSl u ii vs. 



Decussately opposite; calyx bladder-like; herbs with stout fleshy jointed stems 



7. Salicornia, 



1. NITROPHILA Wats. 

 A low perennial glabrous herb with lleshy opposite amplexicaul leaves and 

 axillary perfeel flowers. Calyx of 5 (rarely 6 or 7) equal erect concave and 

 carinate sepals. Stamens equal in number, united at base into a narrow yellow- 

 ish disk. Style longer than the sub-globose ovary; stigmas 2. Utricle 1- 

 seeded, indehiscent, beaked by the persistent style, included within the con- 

 invent sepals. (Greek nitron, carbonate of soda, and philos, fond of, these 

 plants loving alkaline soils.) 



1. N. occidentalis Wats. Stems decumbent, oppositely branching, 4 to 

 14 in. long; root about the size of a pencil, penetrating vertically (and often 

 maintaining a uniform size) to a depth of 2 ft. or more; leaves linear, sessile, 

 Vi> to 1 in. long, the floral mostly 3 to 6 lines long, triangular, mucronate; 

 flowers solitary in the axils of the opposite leaves and bibracteate, or often 

 2 to 3 with the central one frequently bractless and the lateral often pedicel- 

 late; sepals imbricated, pinkish or whitish, chartaceous, 1 line long; stamens 

 '.; the length of the sepals and opposite them; ovule attached to base of ovary 

 on a long funiculus. 



Moist alkaline areas, often on the black alkali: lower Sacramento, more 

 common southward through the San Joaquin. 



2. BETA L. 



Robust glabrous biennials with large fleshy roots and alternate leaves, the 

 radical large and long-petioled, the floral reduced and sessile. Inflorescence 

 Bpicate. Flowers perfect, greenish white, in sessile axillary clusters, these 

 forming spikes disposed in a leafy panicle. Sepals 5, sometimes costate dor- 

 sal I v. Stamens 5, opposite the sepals, perigynous; filaments frequently con- 

 n.it. ■ .it base. Ovary sunk in the succulent base of the perianth and partly in- 

 ferior; styles 2 or 3, short, stigmatose on the inside. Frail included in the 

 :it Length much indurated calyx. Embryo annular. (Perhaps Celtic, bett, 

 red, on account of the color of the root.) 



1. B. vulgaris 1,. Beet. Root biennial. 1<_. to i' in. in diameter, 3 to 

 c» in. ion*;, tapering downwards; stems stout, 2 to i ft. high, paniculately 

 branched above; leaves ii to '.) in. long, oblong or oval, undulate; cauline 

 Bmaller, o\ ate lanceolate j seed rugose. 



Marshes al AJvarado; Petaluma. An escape from gardens. June. 



