Salsola .] 
LX. CHEN OPODIACBJE. 
233 
ribbed, ratber rough. Leaves small, } in. long, scattered, patent or re- 
curved, rigid, ovate or broadly subulate, pungent. Flowers very inconspi- 
cuous, shorter than the bracts. Perianth 5 -parted, segments after flowering 
expanded into a broad, horizontal, membranous, veined wing. 
Northern Island : gravelly shores of Port Nicholson harbour, Colenso, who observes 
that it is perhaps introduced. A. native of Australia, and very closely related to the common 
European S. Kali. My only specimen has shorter leaves than the Australian plant, which 
is sometimes pilose ; it has not ripe fruit. I have from Canterbury what appear to me 
to he seedlings of this, sent by Mr. Travers. 
5. SALICORNIA, Linn. 
Herbs or shrubs ; stems leafless, succulent, jointed. — Flowers minute, 
sometimes in approximate short joints, which form a sort of cone at the end 
of the branch, hermaphrodite, ebracteate, hidden in or between the tops of the 
joints of the stem. Perianth fleshy, turbinate. Stamens 1 or 2. Ovary 
ovoid; styles 2. Utricle compressed, included in the perianth. Seed vertical ; 
albumen usually scanty ; embryo annular or conduplicate. 
Maritime or salt lake plants, found in all parts of the world. 
1. S. indica, Willd.? ; — FI. N. Z. i. 216. Stems prostrate, 3-6 in. 
long, rather woody ; branches ascending, 2-6 in., terminated by cylindrical 
cones. Joints very variable in length, i- 1 in., rather compressed, dilated at 
the tip and obscurely 2-lobed, about as thick as a small quill. Cones ^-2 
in. long, rather thicker than the branches. Flowers numerous, sessile, whorled 
in the axils of the short joints of the cone. Perianth urceolate, fleshy, trun- 
cate, with a small central orifice. Stamen, 1 only seen. Fruiting perianth 
obpyramidal, with a flat top and closed orifice. Utricle membranous. Seed 
flattened, nearly orbicular ; testa papillose, rather thick ; albumen 0 ; embryo 
with very thick, plano-convex, pyriform cotyledons, and incumbent terete 
radicle. — S. australis, Forst. 
Northern and Middle Islands : abundant on muddy shores and in sandy and rocky 
places. Banks and Solander, etc. This appears to be the same as the Indian plant 
figured in Wight’s ‘ leones,’ t. 757, and quoted by Moquiu-Tandon, and which is also found 
in Tasmania and Australia. The structure of the flower and fruit wants careful' re-examina- 
tion on living specimens. It does not agree with any description in Moquin’s monograph 
of the genera in A . DC.’s ‘ Prodromus,’ but is, I suppose, referable to his genus Arthro- 
cnemon. 
Order LXI. AMARANTHACE^. 
Herbs, rarely shrubby. Leaves opposite or alternate ; stipules 0. — Floral 
characters of Chenopodiacece, but the perianth is usually membranous or sca- 
rious, of 5 distinct leaflets ; the stamens are most often united into a mem- 
branous cup with membranous expansions between the filaments, and the 
anthers are 1 -celled in many. One tribe of the Order has several ovules in 
the ovary. 
A large tropical and subtropical Order, including a few weeds of cultivation, as Amaran- 
thus ( Eu.rolus) viridis, which Cunningham has, under the name of Chenopodium triandrum, 
from the Bay of Islands ; it resembles a Chenopodium , but has acute bracts and perianth- 
leaflets, and a minute hard nut -like fruit. 
