eremosemium CHENOPODIACE^E 597 



COK1SPERMDM 



dioecious or sometimes monoecious. Calyx of the bractless stamin- 

 ate flowers mostly 4-parted, the 4-5 stamens central, with short 

 subulate filaments. Pistillate flowers without calyx, enveloped 

 in the obcompressed membranaceous bracts which are united into 

 an orbicular flattened sac with a small naked orifice at the apex, 

 adherent below to each other and to the pedicel of the ovary, be- 

 coming enlarged and reticulately veined and somewhat wavy- 

 margined vertically. Styles 2, slender, at first exserted. Seeds 

 vertical, with a membranaceous testa. Embryo annular: radicle 

 inferior. 



E. spinosa Greene Pitt. iv. 225 Grayia polygaloides H. & A. Stems 

 erert, diffusely branched, 1-4 feet high, the branchlets often spines- 

 cent: leaves rather fleshy, glabrous or at first with the young branches 

 somewhat mealy, oblanceolate or spatulate to obovate, 6-15 lines long, 

 obtuse or acute, narrowed at base and sometimes petioled: staminate flow- 

 ers in axillary clusters, the pistillate mostly spicate : fruiting bracts 3-6 

 lines in diameter, sessile, smooth, emarginate, thin, white or pinkish : the 

 seed usually central, about % of a line broad. On rocky ridges, eastern 

 Oregon to California and Utah. 



Tribe 3 Corispermese Moq. Chenop. 101. Steins not articulated. 

 Leaves not fleshy. Flowers perfect, bractless. Pericarp adherent to 

 the vertical seed. Embryo annular around copious albumen. 



9 CORISPERMUM L. Sp. 4. 



Annual herbs. with alternate leaves and small perfect bractless 

 green flowers solitary in the axils, forming narrow T leafy terminal 

 spikes, the upper leaves shorter and broader than the lower. Calyx 

 1 or 2 thin broad sepals. Stamens 1-3, rarely more and one of 

 them longer. Ovary ovoid: styles 2. Utricle ellipsoidal, mostly 

 plano-convex, the pericarp firmly adherent to the vertical seed, 

 its margins acute or winged. Embryo annular, surrounding 

 somewhat fleshy albumen: radicle inferior. 



C. hyssopifolium L. Sp. 4. More or less floccose or villous-pubescent : 

 stem erect, 6-18 inches high, diffusely much branched: leaves linear, 9-18 

 lines long, cuspidate : floral bracts reduced more or less abruptly, from 

 linear-lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, membranously margined: 

 sepals rarely wanting, shorter than the bracts: stamens more or less per- 

 fectly developed : fruit \%-2 lines long narrowly winged, obtuse, often 

 mucronate with the projecting style. On sandy alkaline plains, Alaska to 

 California and the Atlantic States and Europe. 



Tribe 4 Salicorniese Dumort. Moq. in DC. Prodr. xiii pt. 2, 144- 

 Fleshy saline plants with jointed stems and scale-like leaves. Flow- 

 ers mostly perfect, immersed bi threes in depressions in the rachis of a 

 close cylindrical spike. Seed vertical. Embryo annular, with little 

 albumen. 



9 SALICORNIA L. Sp. 3. 



Fleshy annual or perennial plants with opposite terete branches 

 scale-like leaves and small perfect, or the lateral staminate, flow- 

 ers in heads of 3-7 sunken in the axils of the upper scales, form- 



