SALTBUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE UNITED STATES 2] 
Colo., August 5, 1914. Sample 7218 (W) was collected under mes- 
quite bushes on sandy soil on the Jornada Range Reserve, at an 
elevation of about 4,300 feet, about 45 miles nor theast of Las Cruces, 
N. Mex., October 14, 1914. 
Composition (water-free basis) 
Ether Crude | Nitrogen-| : Pento- 
Sample | Moisture 
Ash age : free Protein ; 
extract fiber ees sans 
Per cent | Percent | Percent} Percent | Percent | Percent | Per cent 
Department 7207 (W)______---- 4.9 16.7 1S 22. 7 | 45. 0 13.8 14. 2 
Department 7218 (W)_--------- 4.0 13.8 2.4 35. 9 | 35. 5 | 12. 4 | 17.5 
| | 
C’. pratericola is eaten freely by cattle, especially after the seeds 
are mature. Like most other species of this genus, it is a stock 
food of some importance in the range country, but a nuisance on 
cultivated lands. Several species that are valuable as forage plants 
in the range country are really weeds introduced from “Europe, 
which can endure the conditions of the semiarid West. 
CHENOPODIUM SALINUM Standl. 
Chenopodium salinum is a spreading annual, a foot to 18 inches 
high, with numerous branching stems that give it the form of a tum- 
bleweed. The leaves are 1%, inches long or less, ebout half as wide, 
pale-green above and mealy- white beneath, with a few coarse teeth 
along the sides. The flowers are small, green, and densely crowded 
in clusters toward the ends of the stems. The reddish-brown , slightly 
tuberculate seeds are usually produced in abundance. 
The species is found in alkaline soils from Manitoba and Alberta 
southward to Arizona and New Mexico. Like several of its near 
relatives, it can occupy land bare of vegetation, because it is well 
adapted to such locations within its distribution area. 
Department sample 8806 (G), consisting of plants cut just above 
the ground, when the seeds were in the early stage of maturity, at 
Fargo, N. Dak., August 10, 1907, contained, on an air-dry basis, 8.9 
per cent of moisture, and, on a water-free basis, 14.5 per cent of ash, 
3.6 per cent of ether extr act, 21.8 per cent of crude fiber, 49.2 per cent 
of nitrogen-free extract, 10.9 per cent of protein, and 12.3 per cent of 
pentosans. 
DONDIA DEPRESSA (Pursh) Britton 1 
Dondia depressa (P\. IX, fig. 1) is an annual herb, with succulent 
leaves and stems, sometimes growing erect to a height of a foot or 
two and sometimes spreading Ww eakly. Under certain conditions the 
plant turns a rather bright red as it reaches maturity, making a 
conspicuous spot of color beside the alkaline lakes and in the salty 
sinks where it usually grows. (PI. I, fig. 2.) It produces quantities 
of seed. 
In the botanical textbooks the common name seablight or saltwort 
(73) is applied to the plants of this genus, but the writers have 
15 Suaeda erecta var depressa. 
