AMARANTACE.E. 65 



midal panicles, which are leafy below ; lateral bracts concave, but keeled, equalling the 

 calyx; sepal-nerves 3 (or lateral inconspicuous), evanescent below the top; stigmas 2 (-3), 

 linear, divergent.— Mart. Nov. Gen. t. 155. — Rosea, Mart. Ires, celosioides, Sw. (non L). 

 I. angustifolia, Enphrasen .- a form with narrow leaves. — Habit of the preceding, but easily 

 distinguished by the slender peduncles of the special spikes, and their colour ; flowers §'" long: 

 wool 2"'-3"' long, proceeding not only from the rhachis, but also from the back of the calyx. 

 — TIab. Jamaica!, Al., March; Antigua!, Nichols.; Trinidad!, Lockh.; [Cuba, Haiti!, 

 Panama !, New Granada !, Ecuador!, Brazil!]. 



12. I. luzuliflora, Gr. Suffrutescent, pubescent ; leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 pointed, petioled ; flowers polygamous, capitate : heads subglobose, whitish, peduncled, ar- 

 ranged in corymbose panicles ; bracts concave, exceeded three times by the calyx; sepal- 

 nerves 3, excurrent, prominent ; filaments entire, subdeuticulate ; stigmas at length distinct, 

 oblong. — Mart. Nov. Gen. t. 138. — Gomphrena, Moq.l Alternanthera iresinoides, Klh. 

 (Serturnera, Mart., Gomphrena, Moq. !). Serturnera glauca, Mart. ib. t. 136, 137 (Gom- 

 phrena, Moq.) : a narrow-leaved form. — A tall herb, like the preceding species, geniculated 

 at the constricted nodes, covered by a short, persistent down ; panicle compound, terminal, 

 leafless, with accessory axillary ones ; flower-heads 2"'-3'" diarn., often snow-white, supported 

 by a spreading peduncle ; flowers often hermaphrodite; or the male ones with an abortive 

 pistil ; wool proceeding from the rhachis and from the back of the calyx, flexuose, and equal- 

 ling the flower (l"'~l$ m long).— Hab. Trinidad !, Schach, Lockh., Cr. ; [Venezuela !, Brazil !, 

 Buenos Ayres !]. 



13. I. aurata, Diefr. Frutescent, climbing ; branchlets minutely pubescent ; leaves 

 elliptical, pubescent beneath, petioled ; flowers polygamous, capitate-, heads minute, globose, 

 yellowish-white, the lateral superior ones subsessile, all arranged in a pyramidal panicle ; 

 bracts concave, exceeded three times by the calyx ; sepal-nerves 3, excurrent ; filaments produced 

 on each side into a rounded, basilar lobe, which is shortly prominent from the cupule ; 

 stigma bipartite : segments oblong. — Mart. Nov. Gen. 1. 139. — Trommsdorftia, Mart. Alter- 

 nanthera, Moq. Iresine elatior, Sieb. (non Rick.). — A climber, with spreading branches; 

 flower-heads 2'" diam., 5-11-flowered, exceeded a little by the flexuous, spreading wool. — 

 The structure of the short cupule is not that of Alternanthera ; for it was only by mistake 

 that the filament-lobes were described as simple and alternating with the filaments. They 

 are quite analogous to those of Hebanthe, and differ from them only in their rounded shape, 

 and in their position at the base of the free part of the filament, being consequently double 

 between each pair. The erroneous character of Trommsdorflia may have been the cause why 

 our plant in herbaria is occasionally confounded with some species of Hebanthe, and by 

 Moqnin with his Gomphrena pulverulenta ; all forms, however, of Iresine which correspond 

 with Martius's Hebanthe, are easily to be distinguished by having solitary flowers, arranged 

 in interrupted, elongated spikes. — Hab. Trinidad!, Lockh.; [Mexico!, Venezuela!, Brazil!, 

 as far south as S. Katherine !]. 



9. PHILOXERUS, R. Br. 



(Iresine, sect. Philoxerus, Moq., par tint.) 



Sepals 5, two interior narrower, but of equal length, supported by, but not enveloped 

 within wool. Stamens 5 : basilar cupule short, toothless ; anthers oblong. Style 2-partite. 

 Pericarp utricular. — Leaves narrow ; flowers scarious : spicules glomerate, and arranged in 

 terminal, subglobose flower-heads; bracts scarious, keeled, conduplicated, inferior some- 

 times sterile. 



This genus, if compared with the preceding, is not nearly related to it, though approaching 

 it in the structure of the sexual organs : it is distinguished by the stiff, scarious sepals, by 

 hermaphrodite flowers, and by the wool, wh'ch is attached to the base of the two inner 

 sepals, not growing out. R. Brown has compared it with Litlwphila, with which it might 

 as well be combined. 



14. P. verxniculatns, R. Br. Perennial, decumbent, diffuse; leaves linear, tapering 

 towards the base, convex beneath, glabrous ; flower-heads globose, at length ovate or oblong, 

 white, usually leafy at the base ; sepals trinerved below the middle, nearly equalling the 

 lateral bracts, exterior glabrous : the lateral nerves joined at the middle with the excurrent 

 midrib. — Beauv. Ft. Owar.t.'dS. — Illecebrum, L. Ireaiuc, Moq. I. aggregate, Moq.!: the 



