8 BULLETIN 1345, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Composition (water-free basis) 
Sample Moisture a 
Ash Ether Crude a hes id Protein Pento- 
extract fiber parhach sans 
| 
Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent 
Department 8338 (G)___________ 9.5 30. 5 1. 6: | 33. 1 Pi 9.1 14.8 
Department 7229 (W)_________- 5. 6 24.8 12 26. 1 39. 0 8.9 18.6 
Nevada (3) and Wyoming (20)_- 7.6 23. 3 2.3 39.8 24. 3 AKO prio |= Se. ae 
Average... 4.1 CUAViie, ie 1D 25. 4 1.9 34.7 28. 3 | NN hs fee De 
This species is one of the most important browse plants, especially 
for sheep, throughout the Great Basin region. Owing to the lack of 
permanent watering places in the region where it grows, however, it 
is available only when there is snow on the ground. 
ATRIPLEX ELEGANS (Mogq.) Dietr. 
Atriplex elegans (P1. IV, fig. 1) is a spreading annual (sometimes 
perennial) herb, 6 to 18 "inches high, gray-green, mealy on the 
under sides of the leaves and on all the young parts. The leaves 
are an inch long or less, and less than half as wide, with wavy or 
irregularly -toothed margins. Botanists distinguish it and several 
similar species by the peculiarities of the seed pods. 
This species grows on the dry plains of western Texas, southern 
New Mexico, Arizona, and adjacent Mexico, where it forms a large 
part of the summer growth on alkaline soils occupied by annual 
plants only. It grows freely during the rainy season, and in south- 
ern Arizona at the lower levels it is ‘important as a spring annual. 
Department sample 11102 (G) consists of mature plants in fruit, 
collected near the foot of the Santa Rita Mountains, Ariz., Octo- 
ber, 1915. 
Composition (water-free basis) 
Sample Moisture 
N ‘trogen- 
Ether Crude ager Pento- 
Ash extract fiber poe et Protein sans 
Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent | Per cent 
Department 11102 (G)__-__-___- 6.3 10. 2 1.0 48. 4 30. 9 9.5 20. 4 
Arizona (8) (2 samples) _______-_- O.2 PPP tf 2.0 20. 4 40.9 gr Se) ees a Se 
This species is eaten readily by cattle throughout its distribution 
area, 
ATRIPLEX FALCATA (Jones) Standl. 
Atriplex falcata is a much-branched undershrub, a foot high or 
less, with narrowly oblong leaves, three-fourths of an inch long or 
less. The whole plant is densely whitish and scurfy. The small 
subangular seed pods, with a few coarse teeth and blunt projec- 
tions on the sides, are produced in crowded panicles at the ends of 
the numerous slender, mostly erect stems. 
Associated with shadscale and other saltbushes, this plant grows 
in large numbers on the plains of western Utah and adjacent Nevada. 
