GOOSEFOOT FAMILY. 145 



Alk alin e Hats of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Abundant on 

 the ''goose-lands" of Glenn Co. 



10. A. californica Moq. Perennial; root large, % to 1 in. thick, some- 

 what fleshy; stems slender, wiry, mostly herbaceous, prostrate, often much 

 branched and forming a thick mat ; herbage finely white-mealy, but the general 

 hue mostly greenish; leaves thinnish, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 2 

 to 6 lines long, sessile, or narrowed at base into a very short petiole; staminate 

 flowers in terminal spikes; pistillate flowers in axillary clusters; fruiting bracts 

 membranous, ovate, acute, entire, loosely closed over the utricle, but not united, 

 iy 2 lines long or less. 



Sandy beaches along the ocean and about San Francisco Bay. Apr. -May. 



11. A. leucophylla Dietr. Perennial; stems prostrate, densely light 

 brown-scurfy, 1 to several ft. long, often somewhat woody at base, with 

 usuallv many short ascending branches; leaves thick, orbicular to elliptic or 

 elliptic-ovate, 4 to 8 lines long, sessile, 3-nerved; calyx rather large, 5-cleft; 

 staminate clusters in a dense terminal spike % to 1 in. long; pistillate flowers 

 2 or 3 together in axillary clusters; fruit globose or nearly so, iy 2 to 2 lines 

 long, with the bracts completely united and marginless (except at the apex 

 where there is a small ovate double wing) and the sides commonly with two 

 (or several) warty projections. 



Seabeaches, very common; San Francisco and southward. 



6. SPIROSTACHYS Wats. 



An alkaline shrub with alternate leafless jointed branches; the branchlets 

 fleshy and green with short scale-like leaves. Flowers perfect, arranged 

 spirally by threes in a crowded spike, in the axils of fleshy subsessile bracts. 

 Calyx of 4 (or 5) concave carinate imbricated sepals, more or less united. 

 Stamens 1 or 2, with slender filaments at length exserted. Ovary oblong; 

 styles 2, rarely 3, commonly distinct. Pericarp membranous, free from the ver- 

 tical oblong seed. Embryo green, nearly surrounding the rather copious 

 albumen. (Greek spira, a coil or spiral, and stachus, a spike.) 



1. S. occidentalis Wats. Kern Greasewood. Erect, diffusely branched, 

 4 ft. high or less; vestiges of leaves very short, broadly triangular and am- 

 plexicaul, acute, often nearly obsolete; spikes numerous, sessile or nearly so, 

 cylindrical, 3 to 10 lines long; bracts rhomboidal; flowers crowded, slightly 

 exserted; calyx becoming spongy and enclosing the fruit. — (Allenrolfea occi- 

 dentalis Ktze.) 



Alkaline soil: Byron Springs and Livermore Pass to the upper San Joa- 

 quin. 



7. SALICORNIA L. Samphire. Glasswort. 



Low saline very succulent plants, ours herbs, with leafless jointed stems and 

 opposite branches. Inflorescence spicate-cylindrical. Flowers perfect, im- 

 mersed in the hollows of the thickened upper joints, and disposed in opposite 

 clusters of '.',, the lateral ones of each trio often only staminate. Calyx small 

 and bladder-like, with an anterior opening, in fruit spongy or thickened on the 

 margins. Stamens 2, exserted in flower. Ovary oblong; styles 2 or 3, short 

 Pericarp membranous, in our species adherent to the vertical seed. Embryo 

 thick, the cotyledons incumbent upon the caulicle. (Latin sal, salt, and cornu, 

 horn, plants of saline habitat with horn-like branches.) 



1. S. ambigua Michx. Pickle-weed. Steins 5 to 12 in. long, from 



