36 CVI. AMARANTACEE (BAKER AND CLARKE). [Amaranthus. 
In all warm countries. 
Sir J. D. Hooker has examined Amarantacee with great exactness, and has 
named the Tropical African species in Kew herbarium. I follow him closely, and 
have nothing to add (as regards the present group) to his remarks (cited above in 
the Flora Brit. Ind.). A. Blitum, T. Thoms. in Speke, Nile, Append. 646 ; Oliver 
in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxix. 141, was (fide Thomson) 8 to 5 ft. high, and could not 
have been the plant here called 4. Blitum, Linn. 
9. A. polygamus, Linn. Amen. Acad. iv. 294, and Sp. Pl. ed. ui. 
1408. Suberect, stouter, up to 2 ft. high, with long branches. Leaves 
variable in size; petioles often very long; blade (in Schweinfurth, 
626) 2 by 1 in., ovate-elliptic. Inflorescence wholly axillary, not 
running into a leafless terminal spicate mass; otherwise as A. Bhitum, 
Linn.—Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 721; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 172. 
Euxolus polygamus, Moquin in DC. Prodr, xiii. ii. 272. <Albersia 
polygama, Aschers. in Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 175; Boiss. FI. 
Orient. iv. 991; Schinz in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. Append. ii. 164. 
A, polygonoides, Zarb in Cat. Spéc. Bot. Pfund, 33. 
Upper Guinea. Togo: near Lome, Warnecke, 363! 
Nile Land. Eritrea: Saati, Schweinfurth, 48; Massowa, Schweinfurth, 
499; Shoho, Quartin-Dillon & Petit, 223! Galabat: Matamma, Schweinfurth, 
626! Kordofan: Arashkol Mountain, Kofschy, 82! British East Africa: near 
Nairobi, Whyte! 
Mozamb. Dist. British Central Africa: Nyasaland, Shire Highlands, 4dam- 
son, 309! Buchanan, 703! 
Widely distributed in all warm regions. 
Imperfectly known species. 
10. A. abyssinicus, Schinz in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 
44, 103. 
It has not been discovered where Schinz has described this species. 
6. MECHOWIA, Schinz in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. 1A, 110. 
Perfect flower solitary ; supported by 2 bracteoles, much shorter 
than the flower. Perianth-segments elliptic-oblong, obtuse, hard, 
glabrous. Filaments 5, linear, slightly widened at the base and connate 
into a short tube, without any staminodes. Ovary ovoid, covered with 
copious long wool; style long linear; stigma small capitate; ovule 1, 
suspended on a basal funicle-—Leaves alternate. Heads ovoid, dense, on 
terminal and penultimate peduncles. 
Species 1, endemic. 
1. M. grandiflora, Schinz in Engl. d: Prantl, Pllanzenfam. iii. 1A, 
110. Branches 6-10 in. long, rigid, from a woody base; at the top 
angular and pubescent. Leaves 2 by # in., elliptic or oblong, tip obtuse, 
sometimes apiculate, base narrowed, hardly petioled, nearly glabrous. 
Peduncles 1-2 in. long, pubescent. Heads 4-3 in. in diam., dense, 
