444 35. ATRIPLEX PATULA. [CL XXIII. 



properly affords no good burning wood, because it consists 

 almost entirely of alburnum, and the heat soon passes away, 

 it yet affords a light charcoal, whicli readily takes fire, and can 

 hence be used, in particular, for gun-powder. The tree is 

 also well adapted for forming quick hedges, because it grows 

 rapidly, because its branches can readily be twisted, and in 

 early spring the flowers are anxiously sought for by bees. 



The leaves are eagerly eaten by all sorts of cattle. In 

 Sweden, calves are foddered with them. 



The wool of the seeds is often used as native cotton ; (Her- 

 der's Gesch. der hierlandischei^ Baumwollenarten. Munchen, 

 1788. Rafn's Danmarks Flor. 1. s. 417. f.) 



CLASS XXIII. 

 35. 



Atriplex patula, L. 



Sparrige Melde. — French. Arroche etaUe. — Engl, t^preading 

 or ache. — Ital. Atreptce spalancante. — Swed. Aker- 

 molla. 



This plant grows in August and September, commonly 

 on salt soils, or on fatty soils, on heaps of rubbish and dung. 

 From a short, thin stake-shaped root, rises directly up- 

 wards a stem, which for the most part is thin and angu- 

 lar. This pushes out its branches from below upwards near- 

 ly in a horizontal, and therefore a sq^arrose direction on 

 all sides, and is about an ell high. The leaf-stalks are 

 half an inch long, somewhat concave and squarrose. The 

 leaves are triangular, hastate, tapering at the base, furnish- 

 ed with three nerves, and set on both sides, but especial- 

 ly on the lower side, with whitish scales, which give the leaf 

 -a brilliant appearance. The margin of the leaf, for the most 

 part red, terminates below on both sides in two wing-shaped 

 distant points,, which produce the hastate form. Towards the 



