The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 144

1. C. hyssopiflium, L. Somewhat hairy when young, pale; floral leaves or bracts awl-shaped from a dilated base or the upper ovate and pointed, scarious-margined; fruit wing-margined.--Sandy beaches along the Great Lakes, central Neb., Tex., and westward.--Leaves usually pungent.

7. SALICoRNIA, Tourn. GLa.s.sWORT. SAMPHIRE.

Flowers perfect, 3 together immersed in each hollow of the thickened upper joints, forming a spike; the two lateral sometimes sterile. Calyx small and bladder-like, with a toothed or torn margin, at length spongy and narrowly wing-bordered, enclosing the flattened thin utricle.

Stamens 1 or 2. Styles 2, united at base. Seed vertical, without alb.u.men. Embryo thick, the cotyledons inc.u.mbent upon the radicle.--Low saline plants, with succulent leafless jointed stems, and opposite branches; the flower-bearing branchlets forming the spikes. (Name composed of _sal_, salt, and _cornu_, a horn; saline plants with horn-like branches.)

1. S. mucronata, Bigel. Annual, erect, stout, naked below (2--12' high), _turning red_ in age; _spikes thick, closely jointed; scales mucronate-pointed and conspicuous_, especially when dry; _middle flower half higher than the lateral ones_ or less, occupying nearly the whole length of the joint; fruit p.u.b.escent; seed --" long. (S. Virginica, _Gray_, Manual; not _L._)--Sea-coast from N. Scotia to Va.

2. S. herbacea, L. Annual, erect or at length spreading (6--18' high), _green; scales obscure and very blunt_, making a truncate barely emarginate termination of _the longer joints_ of the stem or _elongated narrower spikes_; middle flower much higher than the lateral ones, slightly shorter than the joint; fruit p.u.b.escent; seed {2/3}--1"

long.--Salt marshes of the coast and interior salt springs, and alkaline localities.

3. S. ambigua, Michx. Numerous tufted stems (3--12' long) dec.u.mbent or ascending from a hard and rather _woody creeping base or rootstock_, greenish, turning lead-colored; _spikes slender, short-jointed, the scales short, acutish or acute; flowers nearly equal in height_ and equalling the joint; seed p.u.b.escent, {1/3}" long. (S. fruticosa, var.

ambigua, _Gray_, Manual.)--Sea-coast, Ma.s.s. to Fla. and Tex.

8. SUae'DA, Forskal. SEA BLITE.

Flowers perfect, sessile in the axils of leafy bracts. Calyx 5-parted, fleshy, enclosing the fruit (utricle) and often carinate or crested.

Stamens 5. Stigmas 2 or 3. Seed vertical or horizontal, with a flat-spiral embryo, dividing the scanty alb.u.men (when there is any) into two portions.--Fleshy saline plants, with alternate nearly terete linear leaves. (An Arabic name.)

1. S. linearis, Moq. Annual, prostrate or usually erect, 1--2 high, branched; _leaves narrow at base_, --2' long, acute; floral bracts ac.u.minate, on slender branchlets; sepals very thick; anthers exserted; seed horizontal, round-oval, black, " broad. (S. maritima, _Gray_; not _Dumort_.)--Sea-coast, N. Scotia to Fla.--A doubtful form of E. Ma.s.s.

has the bracts and shorter leaves obtuse, larger flowers on less slender branchlets, and reddish seeds nearly 1" broad.

2. S. depressa, Watson. _Annual, dec.u.mbent_ or erect, branching from the base; _leaves broadest at base_, the cauline 3--12" long, the floral lanceolate to ovate; one or more of the calyx-lobes _very strongly carinate or crested_.--Saline soil, Red River Valley, Minn., to Col., and westward.

9. SaLSOLA, L. SALTWORT.

Flowers perfect, with 2 bractlets. Calyx 5-parted, persistent and enclosing the depressed fruit in its base; its divisions at length horizontally winged on the back, the wings forming a broad and circular scarious border. Stamens mostly 5. Styles 2. Seed horizontal, without alb.u.men, filled by the embryo, which is coiled in a conical spiral (cochleate).--Herbs or slightly shrubby branching plants of the sea-sh.o.r.e, with fleshy and rather terete or awl-shaped leaves, and sessile axillary flowers. (Diminutive of _salsus_, salty.)

1. S. Kali, L. (COMMON SALTWORT.) Annual, diffusely branching, bushy, rough or smoothish; leaves all alternate, awl-shaped, p.r.i.c.kly-pointed; flowers single; calyx with the converging lobes forming a sort of beak over the fruit, the large rose or flesh-colored wings nearly orbicular and spreading.--Sandy sea-sh.o.r.e, N. Eng. to Ga. Aug. (Eu.) (Addendum)--Salsola Kali. This species has been found in Emmet Co., Iowa (_Cratty_), at Yankton, Dak. (_Bruhin_), and in river-bottoms in N. W.

Neb. and central Dak.

ORDER 88. PHYTOLACCaCEae. (POKEWEED FAMILY.)

_Plants with alternate entire leaves and perfect flowers, having the general characters of_ Chenopodiaceae, _but usually a several-celled ovary composed of as many carpels united in a ring, and forming a berry in fruit._

1. PHYTOLaCCA, Tourn. POKEWEED.

Calyx of 5 rounded and petal like sepals. Stamens 5--30. Ovary of 5--12 carpels, united in a ring, with as many short separate styles, in fruit forming a depressed globose 5--12-celled berry, with a single vertical seed in each cell. Embryo curved in a ring around the alb.u.men.--Tall and stout perennial herbs, with large petioled leaves, and terminal racemes which become lateral and opposite the leaves. (Name compounded of f?t??, _plant_, and the French _lac_, lake, in allusion to the crimson coloring matter which the berries yield.)

1. P. decandra, L. (COMMON POKE or Sc.o.kE. GARGET. PIGEON-BERRY.) Stamens and styles 10.--Low grounds. July--Sept.--A smooth plant, with a rather unpleasant odor, and a very large poisonous root, often 4--6' in diameter, sending up stout stalks at length 6--9 high; calyx white; ovary green; berries in long racemes, dark-purple and filled with crimson juice, ripe in autumn.

ORDER 89. POLYGONaCEae. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.)

_Herbs, with alternate entire leaves, and stipules in the form of sheaths_ (ocreae, these sometimes obsolete) _above the swollen joints of the stem; the flowers mostly perfect, with a more or less persistent calyx, a 1-celled ovary bearing 2 or 3 styles or stigmas, and a single erect orthotropous seed._ Fruit usually an achene, compressed or 3--4-angled or -winged. Embryo curved or straightish, on the outside of the alb.u.men, or rarely in its centre. Stamens 4--12, inserted on the base of the 3--6-cleft calyx. (Juice often acrid, sometimes agreeably acid, as in Sorrel; the roots, as in Rhubarb, sometimes cathartic.)

[*] Flowers involucrate; stamens 9; stipules none.

1. Eriogonum. Involucre several-flowered, with flowers exserted. Calyx 6-cleft.

[*][*] Flowers without involucre; stamens 4 to 8.

[+] Stipular sheaths manifest; ovule erect from the base of the cell.

[++] Sepals 4 or 6, the outer row reflexed, the inner erect and enlarging in fruit.

2. Oxyria. Sepals 4. Stigmas 2. Achene orbicular-winged. Leaves reniform.

3. Rumex. Sepals 6. Stigmas 3. Achene 3-angled.

[++][++] Sepals 5 (sometimes 4), equal and erect in fruit. Achene triangular or lenticular.

4. Polygonum. Embryo slender, curved around one side of the alb.u.men.

Pedicels mostly fascicled.

5. f.a.gopyrum. Embryo in the alb.u.men, its very broad cotyledons twisted-plaited.

6. Polygonella. Embryo slender, nearly straight. Pedicels solitary.

Leaves jointed at base.

[+][+] Stipules obsolete; ovule hanging from the apex of a slender stalk.

7. Brunnichia. Calyx 5-parted, in fruit with a wing decurrent on the pedicel. Tendril-climber.

1. ERIoGONUM, Michx.

Flowers perfect, involucrate; involucre 4--8-toothed or lobed, usually many-flowered; the more or less exserted pedicels intermixed with narrow scarious bracts. Calyx 6-parted or -cleft, colored, persistent about the achene. Stamens 9, upon the base of the calyx. Styles 3; stigmas capitate. Achene triangular. Embryo straight and axile, with foliaceous cotyledons.--Annuals or perennials, with radical or alternate or whorled entire leaves, without stipules. (Name from ?????, _wool_, and ????, _knee_.)

1. E. annuum, Nutt. Annual, erect, leafy, naked above, 2 high, white-floccose-tomentose throughout; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at both ends, short-petiolate, flat; bracts small, triangular; involucres numerous in terminal cymes, turbinate, shortly pedicelled, 1--1" long, very tomentose; flowers white, the outer sepals oblong obovate, 1" long or less.--Central Kan. to Col., and southward.

(Addendum) 2. E. Alleni, Watson. Perennial, white-tomentose throughout, the tall scape-like stem repeatedly dichotomous above; radical leaves lanceolate, long-petiolate, the upper in whorls of 4 or 5, ovate to oblong-ovate, very shortly petiolate, much reduced above; involucres mostly sessile; flowers glabrous, yellow, the segments elliptical.--Near White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. (_T. F. Allen_).

2. OXRIA, Hill. MOUNTAIN SORREL.

Calyx herbaceous, of 4 sepals; the outer smaller and spreading, the inner broader and erect (but unchanged) in fruit. Stamens 6. Stigmas 2, sessile, tufted. Achene lenticular, thin, flat, much larger than the calyx, surrounded by a broad veiny wing. Seed flattened contrary to the wing. Embryo straight, in the centre of the alb.u.men, slender.--Low alpine perennial, with round-kidney-form and long-petioled leaves chiefly from the root, obliquely truncate sheaths, and small greenish flowers cl.u.s.tered in panicled racemes on a slender scape. (Name from ????, _sour_, in allusion to the acid leaves.)

1. O. digyna, Hill. Leaves all round-kidney-form, usually notched at the end; fruit orbicular.--Alpine region of the White Mts., and far north and westward. (Eu.)

3. RuMEX, L. DOCK. SORREL.