ate. Perianth 3–5-partite; segments oblong or obovate, obtuse. Stamens 3–5. Female flowers 2-bracteate; bracts small at first, erect and appressed, distinct or more or less connate, enlarged in fruit and forming a variously shaped 2-valved covering to the utricle. Perianth wanting or very rarely of 2–5 hyaline segments. Ovary small; styles 2, filiform. Utricle entirely concealed within the base of the greatly enlarged and thickened bracts; pericarp thin, membranous. Seed compressed, vertical or very rarely horizontal; testa thin, crustaceous or coriaceous; embryo annular, surrounding the copious mealy albumen.
A large genus of about 120 species, widely spread through most parts of the globe, but chiefly along sea-coasts or in saline localities. One of the New Zealand species is a weed of probably northern origin, two others are found in Australia, the fourth is endemic.
| Erect branching shrub 1–4 ft. high, white with scurfy tomentum. Leaves 1–2 in., oblong, entire. Fruiting-bracts ¼ in., ovate-rhomboid | 1. A. cinerea. |
| Erect or diffuse annual 1–2 ft. high, green or sparingly mealy. Leaves 1–3 in., lanceolate to deltoid, entire or toothed. Fruiting-bracts 110–18 in., ovate-rhomboid | 2. A. pattila. |
| Prostrate, much branched, 3–9 in. diam., white with scurfy tomentum. Leaves ⅛–⅓ in., oblong to orbicular, entire or sinuate. Fruiting-bracts ovoid, very minute | 3. A. Buchanani. |
| Prostrate, glabrous, fleshy, clothed with watery papillse, 6–18 in. long. Leaves ¼–¾ in., oblong, entire or toothed. Fruiting-bracts urceolate. Utricle transverse to the bracts, not parallel | 4. A. Billardieri. |
1. A. cinerea, Poir. Encycl. Suppl. i. 471.—A small branching shrub 1–4 ft. high, clothed in all its parts with densely appressed white or grey scurfy tomentum; stem woody; branches stout, angled, leafy. Leaves 1–2 in. long, linear-oblong or lanceolate, obtuse, narrowed into a short petiole, quite entire, midrib prominent beneath. Flowers dioecious or almost so; males in dense many-flowered simple or branched oblong spikes, which are often panicled at the ends of the branches. Females in small axillary clusters on the female plant, with occasionally 1 or 2 solitary in the axils of the upper leaves 01 the male plant. Fruiting-bracts greatly enlarged, about ¼ in. long, broadly ovate-rhomboid, subacute; disc thick and corky, swollen over the utricle, smooth or rarely tuberculate; margins thin. Utricle compressed, at the base of the bracts.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 214; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 232; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 171.
North Island: Wellington—Sandy shores of Palliser Bay, Colenso! South Island: Vicinity of Nelson, P. Lawson! Also recorded from Canterbury, but I have seen no specimens from thence.
A common plant in many parts of Australia and Tasmania, and very closely allied to the European and African A. Halimus, Linn.
