30 CVI. AMARANTACEE (BAKER AND CLARKE). | Digera. 
times with many feeble hairs on the stemsand leaves. Leaves alternate ; 
blade 2 in. long, lanceolate or subovate, entire, cuneate at the base ; 
petiole 1 in. long. Peduncles axillary, 1-3 in. long; spikes 1-4 in. 
long, nearly continuous. Perianth 4 in. long; segments elliptic, 
subacute. Style 2-3 times the length of the young ovary. Nut 34; in. 
in diam —Mogquin in DC. Prodr, xiii. ii, 324; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 
iv. 717; Zarb in Cat. Spéc. Bot. Pfund, 33; T. Thoms. in Speke, Nile, 
Append. 646; Oliver in Trans. Linn, Soc. xxix. 141, and ser. 2, Bot. 
ii. 348; Dur. & Schinz, Etudes Fl. Congo, i. 232. D. alternifolia, 
Aschers. in Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 180; Boiss. Fl. Orient. iv. 
994; Schinz in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 1A, 104, and 93, 
fig. 46 G, in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. Append. ii. 164, in Engl. Pfl. Ost- 
Afr. C. 172; not Achyranthes alternifolia, Linn. f. 
Nile Land. Ethiopia, Kotschy, 119! Nubia: Suakin to Berber, Schwein- 
furth, 444! Eritrea; Schweinfurth, 11, 131, 225. Abyssinia: between Hawash 
and Maki Rivers, Welby ! Kordofan ; Kotschy, 114! 128! Khartoum, Petherick HB 
White Nile, Schweinfurth, 900 (or 906 ?)! Nile, near El Damar, Grant! Blue Nile, 
Muriel, 77! British East Africa: Lake Rudolph, Welby! Lake Stephanie, 
Donaldson Smith! Baringo, 3400 ft., Johnston! Taita; Maungu Mountain, 
2000 ft., Johnston! Tana River, Gregory! near Mombasa, Johnston! between 
Mombasa and Witu, Whyte ! 
South Central. Congo Free State; Lisha, Hens, 370; Lutete, Hens, 216. 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa: Usambara; Pangani, Volkens, 459! 
Mascheua, Holst, 8718! 
Extends to India—a weed. 
5. AMARANTHUS, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 28. 
Flowers polygamo-dicecious; the central flower of a cluster often 
perfect, the lateral reduced, sometimes male or obsolete, never spinescent. 
Perianth of the perfect flower 5- or 8-fid, or 3-fid with sometimes 2 
smaller interior segments added (as shown by Schinz for one species). 
Stamens 5, 3, or fewer; filaments linear, nearly free, without interjected 
rudiments; anthers 2-celled, shortly oblong; pollen small, globose, 
irregularly tubercled. Ovary ellipsoid ; ovule 1, on a basal funicle ; style 
short, with 2-3 short linear branches. Fruit mostly membranous, more 
or less definitely a pyxis, sometimes indehiscent; seed globose, com- 
pressed; embryo annular.—Annuals. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, 
long-petioled, tip often obtuse or emarginate, nearly always glabrous ; 
principal nerves parallel, straight, often conspicuous. Flowers in 
clusters, arranged in dense heads or long (loose or dense) spikes; bract 
1; bracteoles 2, in many species overtopping the flower, in some species 
shorter than it. 
Species 25 3 common weeds in all the warmer parts of the world; the first two 
species extensively cultivated as grain (the small abundant seeds). 
This genus has been subdivided on the character of the fruit, a pyxis or a berry 5 
and on the character of the perianth, 5-fid or 3-fid. 
: As to the fruit.—The pyxis in 4. eaudatus and <A. tricolor is very thin, neatly 
circumscissile, the seeds all scattered early. In A. viridis it is herbaceous, wrinkled, 
