=2.= SALSOLEÆ, SALTWORT GROUP, has cylindrical or semi-cylindrical leaves. Perianth as in the preceding group; the fruit is most frequently compressed. The two first mentioned genera differ from most of the others in the order in having a spirally-coiled, and not a ring-like embryo, so that the endosperm is slight or wanting (Fig. 366). These plants are sometimes placed as a group by themselves, SPIROLOBEÆ--in contradistinction to which the others are termed CYCLOLOBEÆ.--_Salsola_ (Saltwort); leaves subulate, with spiny tips; the flowers have 2 spinous bracteoles: during the ripening of the fruit a tough leathery wing is developed transversely to the back of the perianth.--~_Chenopodina_ deviates from _Chenopodium_ chiefly in the embryo and want of endosperm.--_Kochia_ has a somewhat similar perianth to _Salsola_, but a ring-like embryo; it differs from the others in being hairy.~ =3.= SALICORNIEÆ, GLASSWORT GROUP. _Salicornia_ (Glasswort) has a very different appearance. The stems are succulent, jointed, and almost leafless; the leaves opposite, very small, sheath-like and connate; there is a depression in the axil of each leaf, in which a small 3-flowered dichasium without bracteoles is sunk; the flowers have a trimerous perianth, 1–2 stamens and 1 carpel. No endosperm. _S. herbacea_ on clayey beaches. =4.= ATRIPLICEÆ. This group has most frequently unisexual flowers; the ♂-flower has a 4–5 partite perianth, but the ♀-flower differs from it. _Atriplex_ is monœcious or polygamous, the ♀-flower is naked, but has 2 large, herbaceous bracteoles which expand during the ripening of the fruit, and often become warted and fringed, enveloping the _compressed nut_. ~The section _Dichospermum_ has two kinds of ♀-flowers, one like those just described, the other similar to the _Chenopodium_-flowers, which have been deprived of their stamens, and the fruits of which are _depressed_, not pressed together from the sides; some (_e.g. A. hortensis_) have even three kinds of nuts. All the flowers of _Atriplex_, which present vertical fruits, are accessory shoots, which stand beneath the ordinary flower-clusters, a rather singular relation.~--_Spinacia_ (Spinach) is diœcious; ♂-flower: perianth, 4 (-5); stamens, 4 (-5); ♀-flower: tubular, 2–4-partite perianth, hardening during the ripening of the fruit, and uniting with the compressed nut; in _S. oleracea_, it also forms _thorns_; 4 long stigmas.--_Halimus_ has the 2 long bracteoles almost entirely united and ultimately adhering firmly to the fruit. =5.= BASELLEÆ. A somewhat exceptional group with more or less perigynous flowers and 2 bracteoles. _Basella_, _Boussingaultia_, _Ullucus_. The perianth is sepaloid; ovary 1-ovuled. In _Basella_ the perianth is fleshy, enveloping the nut, and the cotyledons are so rolled together that a tranverse cut divides them in two places (as in Spirolobeæ). Herbaceous climbing plants.