142 CHENOPODIACEAE. 



dense, axillary clusters upon the branches, forming a leafy spike; calyx-lobes 

 obtuse, appressed; styles 3, sometimes 4; pericarp deciduous. 



Common near salt marshes and abundant along interior streams; mostly 

 autumnal. Alameda; Berkeley; Marin Co.; Napa Valley; Suisun Marshes; 

 Sacramento River. 



5. C. anthelminticum L. Wormseed. Resembling the preceding; some- 

 times perennial ('?); herbage light green, glandular-puberulent and highly 

 aromatic; leaves sinuate-serrate or the lower sometimes laciniate-pinnatifid, 

 2y 2 or mostly 1 in. long, or less; inflorescence a terminal mostly leafless panicle 

 of dense but elongated slender spikes; sepals not carinate, enclosing the fruit; 

 seed smooth and shining, obtusely margined. 



Not so common as the last, but appearing to hybridize with it. Alameda; 

 Benicia; lower Sacramento; Lake Co. 



6. C. rubrum L. Coast Blite. Stem angled, erect, 1 to 2 ft. high ; herb- 

 age green or nearly so; leaves lanceolate-oblong to broadly ovate, coarsely 

 sinuate, 1 to 2 in. long; flowers numerous in dense short axillary spikes; 

 calyx-lobes 2 to 4, rather fleshy; stamens 1 to 2; seeds shining, the margin 

 acute. 



Sparingly naturalized from Europe. Lower Sacramento River; Alvarado 

 Marshes. Sept. 



7. C. californicum Wats. Soap Plant. Stout, erect or decumbent at 

 base, 1% to 2% ft. high from a very large root; herbage green, scarcely 

 at all mealy; leaves broadly triangular, truncate or cordate at base,- or sub- 

 hastate, sharply and unequally sinuate-dentate, 1% to 3% in. long; flowers in 

 dense clusters of 8 or 9, the clusters disposed in a simple terminal spike, 

 leafless or leafy at the very base; calyx campanulate, barely exceeding 1 line; 

 fruit with persistent pericarp, seedlike, large, subglobose or somewhat com- 

 pressed, exserted, % to 1 line broad; embryo completely annular. 



Foothill country from the Sacramento Valley and Napa Co. southward. 

 Apr.-May. 



4. ROUBIEVA Moq. 



Heavy-scented herb, with prostrate branches. Leaves alternate, deeply pin- 

 natifid. Flowers minute, perfect or pistillate, solitary or 2 or 3 together in 

 the axils; calyx deeply urceolate, 3 to 5-toothed, becoming saccate and con- 

 tracted at the top, enclosing the fruit. Stamens 5, included. Ovary glandular 

 at the top ; styles 3, somewhat lateral, exserted. Pericarp membranaceous, glan- 

 dular-dotted, thin and deciduous; seed vertical, lenticular; embryo annular. 

 (G. J. Roubieu, French botanist.) 



1. R. multifida Moq. Branches 1 to 2 ft. long; leaves % to 1*4 in- 

 long; calyx in fruit obovate, very conspicuously reticulate-veined. — (Chenopo- 

 dium multifidum L.) 



Native of Peru; abundant on the San Francisco sand hills, and in waste 

 places eastward to the Great Valley. 



5. ATRIPLEX L. 

 Herbs or shrubs, usually mealy or scurfy with bran-like scales. Leaves alter- 

 nate or opposite. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, in clusters, or mostly 

 short spikes which are either simple or panicled, the pistillate and staminate 

 in separate inflorescences or mingled in the same cluster (androgynous) ; 

 staminate with a regular 4 or 5-parted calyx, the pistillate consisting of a 



