BETA 
1 68 
In the first edition of the Species Plantarum, p. 222 (1753), Linnaeus placed this plant as a variety (var. maritima ) of 
his Beta vulgaris. In the second edition of the same work, p. 322 (1762), he elevated the plant to a species under the 
name of B. maritima. The rule adopted in all such cases in the present work is to take the second edition of the Species 
Plantarum as the starting point of nomenclature. Accordingly, we adopt the name B. maritima for the species, and pass 
over any earlier names, such as B. vulgaris Hudson FI. Angl. 93 (1762). This has been the practice of nearly all botanists 
since the binominal system was founded ; and to follow the rule, in the cases in question, of retaining the binominal used 
in the first edition of the Species Plantaruvi would therefore result in undesirable confusion. There are not many species 
involved ; and although the rule we adopt is perhaps a slight departure from the letter of the international rules of nomencla- 
ture, it is obviously in keeping with their general aim which is the conservation of names established in literature. Cf. Sali- 
cornia herbacea and Mesembryanthemum edule. 
The cultivated beets ( B . vulgaris L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 322 (1762) non ed. 1) are very closely allied to this, and may best be 
distinguished from it by their annual or biennial habit and by their flowers more frequently in groups of 3 and 4 instead of 
2 and 3. 
There is some doubt as to whether the present species has given rise to the cultivated beets or whether the latter have 
not sprung from some annual or biennial wild form of southern Europe. 
Edges of salt-marshes, muddy, sandy, and shingly foreshores just within reach of the highest 
tides, and on spray- washed sea-cliffs and sea-walls. From the Channel Isles, Cornwall, and Kent to 
Wigtownshire, the southern Hebrides, and Fifeshire ; Ireland generally. 
Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, central and southern Russia, southern Europe ; northern 
Africa ; Asia Minor to the East Indies. 
Tribe 3. A TRIPLICEAE 
Atripliceae c. A. Meyer in Ledebour FI. Alt. i, 371 (1829) emend.; Volkens in Engler und Prantl 
Pflanzenfarn. iii, pt. i a, 52 et 62 (1893). 
For characters, see page 153. Only British genus: — Atriplex. 
Genus 3. Atriplex 
By C. E. MOSS and A. J. WILMOTT, F.L.S. 
Atriplex [Tournefort Inst. 505, t. 286 (1719)] L. Sp. PI. 1052 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 472 (1754); 
Bentham and Hooker Gen. PI. iii, 53 (1880); Volkens in Engler und Prantl Pflanzenfarn. iii, pt. ia, 63 et 
64 (1893). 
Shrubs, undershrubs, or herbs; often “mealy” (cf. page 153). Leaves usually alternate, some- 
times opposite below and alternate above. Inflorescence usually with long compound spikes with 
leaf-like bracts at the base of the partial cymose inflorescences ; spikes usually more or less interrupted. 
Flowers imperfect. Staminate flowers with a perianth. Perianth with 3 — 5, usually 5 segments. 
Pistillate flowers with no perianth (except in some of the flowers of the members of the section 
Dichospermum ), and with 2 opposite bracteoles. Ovary of the pistillate flowers functional, a 
rudimentary one sometimes occurring in the staminate flowers. Stigmas 2. Fruiting bracteoles 
of the pistillate flowers persistent, more or less coherent along the lower part of their margins ; 
either smooth, or tuberculate (i.e., with large protuberances, usually 2, near the base of the outer 
surface, and sometimes with smaller accessory ones, thus forming 2 groups side by side), or muricate 
(i.e., with numerous small conical protuberances). Seed compressed, discoid, and either vertical or 
(as in the members of the section Dichospermum ) some vertical and others horizontal, either large 
(2-5 — 3'omm. in diameter) or small (f2 — 1 '5 mm. in diameter). Pericarp thin. 
Atriplex is related to C/ienopodium (and therefore to Beta) through the section Dichospermum. 
The arrangement of species here adopted represents, as far as a linear arrangement allows, the gradual transition from 
the simple, and probably primitive, forms to the more complex ones. The genus is strongly developed along several lines 
in Australia ; and the British forms give an inadequate idea of the genus. 
About 100 species; cosmopolitan, chiefly subtropical, warm temperate, and temperate. 
Subgenera of Atriplex 
Subgenus 1. Eu- Atriplex (p. 169). Laminae linear to triangular, often more or less 
hastate or lobed at the base. Bracteoles eventually triangular to ovate, rhomboidal, or suborbicular, 
truncate or cuneate at the base, lateral lobes (when present) smaller than the median one. Radicle 
of seed horizontal. 
Subgenus 2. Obione (p. 180). Laminae elliptical or nearly so. Bracteoles eventually obdeltoid, 
3-lobed, lateral lobes often larger than the median one, united nearly to the apex. Radicle of 
seed vertical. 
