2. A. patula, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1053.—A very variable erect or decumbent or prostrate annual herb 1–2 ft. high, green and smooth, or sparingly mealy-white. Leaves petiolate, 1–3 in. long, lanceolate to broadly triangular-hastate, acute or obtuse, entire or coarsely sinuate-toothed; the uppermost often smaller and linear, the lowest sometimes opposite. Flowers small, monoecious, in clusters arranged in rather slender spikes, often forming narrow terminal panicles; the male and female flowers mixed or occasionally some of the females form separate axillary clusters. Male perianth small, 5-partite. Fruiting-bracts ovate-rhomboid or deltoid, acute, the disc smooth or tubercled; margins toothed or entire.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 215; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 232; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 173.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon in brackish-water swamps and other places near the sea from the Thames River southwards. December–March.
Now plentiful in almost all temperate parts of the world, either native or naturalised. How far it is indigenous in Australia and New Zealand is now very difficult to determine. The broad-leaved form known as var. hastata is the one most generally seen, but the more slender var. littoralis is also met with.
3. A. Buchanani, T. Kirk, MSS.—An excessively branched prostrate herb, forming broad depressed greyish-white patches 3–9 in. across; stem woody at the base; branchlets slender, wiry, terete. Leaves shortly petiolate or almost sessile, ⅛–⅓ in. long, oblong or oblong-ovate to suborbicular, rounded at the tip, quite entire, both surfaces densely clothed with white scurfy tomentum. Flowers minute, monœcious. Males in few-flowered clusters in the axils of the upper leaves or terminal, sometimes solitary. Perianth densely farinose, 5-partite; segments oblong, obtuse, incurved at the tip. Stamens 5, exserted; filaments filiform. Females solitary or in clusters of 2–5 in the lower axils, occasionally a few females at the base of the male clusters. Fruiting-bracts connate into an ovoid or almost urceolate 2-lipped cup. Utricle suborbicular, compressed, sunk within the base of the bracts.—Chenopodium Buchanani, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1898) 447, t. 32, f. 1.
North Island: Sea-cliffs near Wellington, Buchanan! Kirk! South Island: Marlborough—The Brothers Rocks, Robson! Canterbury—Near the mouth of the Rangitata, Enys! Otago—Green Island and cliffs on the East Coast, Petrie! saline places in the interior, Maniototo Plains, Ida Valley, Cromwell, Petrie! Centre Island (Foveaux Strait), Kirk! Sea-level to 1800ft. December–March .
A distinct little species. Some immature specimens in Mr. Kirk's herbarium from Cargill Cliffs, near Dunedin, are more sparingly branched and have much larger leaves, and may form a separate variety.
4. A. Billardieri, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 215.—A much-branched glabrous and succulent prostrate herb, everywhere covered with shining watery papillæ; branches 6–18 in. long, spreading on
