ACNIDA. 



CHENOPODIACE.E. 



139 



Stem 3-6 feet high, more or less branching, rather succulent. Leaves varying from 

 ovate- to linear-lanceolate, tapering to a long rather obtuse point, acute at the base, petiolate. 

 Racemes or spikes 3-8 inches long, leafy ; the flowers sessile. Sterile fl. Sepals oblong, 

 obtuse, somewhat concave. Stamens as long as the calyx : filaments short : anthers large, 

 oblong, rather obtuse. Fertile fl. Stamens none. Sepals ovate, acute, small. Ovary 

 oblong, longer than the calyx : styles somewhat plumose, varying from 3-5. Achenium 

 coriaceous, with as many angles as there are stigmas. Seed obovate, compressed, black. 

 Embryo horseshoe-form, but closed. 



Borders of salt-marshes, and along the Hudson as far as the water is brackish. Fl. August. 

 Fr. September. I have not found this plant in the interior of the State, but in Pennsylvania 

 and in the Western States it sometimes occurs in freshwater swamps. 



2. Acnida rusocarpa, Michx. Rough-fruited Water-hemp. 



Fruit with the angles rather obtuse and corrugated. — Michx. fl. 2. p. 234. t. 50 ; Pursh, 

 fl. 1. p. 208; Ell. sk. 2. p. 694 ; Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. 79. A. rhyssocarpa, Spreng. 

 syst. 3. p. 903.* 



Resembles the preceding in almost every respect except the fruit. This has the angles 

 thickened, and wrinkled or somewhat tuberculate. 



Borders of salt-marshes near New-York. August - September. It is probable that this 

 plant is only a variety or particular state of A. cannabina. In Michaux's figure, the fruit is 

 not represented as rugose. 



Tribe III. SALICORNIE^. C. A. Mey. 



Flowers perfect, rarely polygamous, without bracts, immersed in excavations of the rachis, 

 or concealed between its joints ; all similar inform. Seed vertical. Fruit an utriculus 

 or an achenium. Integument double or simple. Embryo conduplicate or semiannular. 

 — Stems mostly jointed. Leaves fleshy and very short, or none. 



7. SALICORNIA. Tourn.; Moq.-Tand. Chenop. p. 113. GLASSWORT. 

 [ From the Latin, sal, salt, and comu, a horn ; a saline plant, with horn-like branches.] 



Flowers perfect (or by abortion polygamous), immersed in excavations of the rachis. Calyx 

 utriculate, toothed on the margin, at length spongy and furnished with a narrow winged 

 border. Stamens 1 or 2. Styles 2, united below. Utricle compressed, enclosed in the 

 calyx. Embryo annular, conduplicate. — Fleshy smooth herbs or undershrubs, jointed, 

 leafless or sometimes with very short leaves : branches opposite, terete ; the joints truncate 

 or 2-toothed ; terminal ones floriferous. Flowers minute, three together ; the lateral ones 

 sometimes sterile. 



* 11 A. rusocarpa, Gallice pronunciatur ; ruscocarpa, Willd., hallucinatione dicitur." Spreng, I.e. 



18* 



