Celosia. | CXVI. AMARANTACE&. (J. D. Hooker.) 715 
Stem 1-3 ft., stout or slender, simple or branched. Leaves 1-6 in., narrow. Spikes 
solitary, few or many, 1-8 by 3-1 in.; peduncle slender; flowers white, glistening ; 
bracts much shorter than the acute sepals.—The top of the spike sometimes branches 
out in a cock's-comb form. 
2. C. cristata, Linn.; annual, glabrous, erect, leaves from linear to 
ovate acute or acuminate, spikes cylindric, flowers 3-3 in., style filiform. 
Mog. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2, 242; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 679, and Ed. Wall. Sf 
Carey, ii. 508; Wall. Cat. 6918; Grah. Cat. Bomb. Pl. 168; Dalz. & Gibs. 
Bomb. Fl.215. QC. cernua, Roxb. l. c. 680, and Ed. Carey & Wall. 509; 
Wall. Cat. 6919; Wight Ic. 730. C. cristata, Linn.; Lamk. Ill.t.168; 
Wall. Cat. 6918. C. coccinea, Linn.; Bot. Reg. t. 1834. Q. comosa, Retz. 
Obs. vi. 26; Andr. Bot. Rep. t. 635. C. pyramidalis, Burm. Fl. Ind. 65, 
t. 25. 
Throughout IxD1A, cultivated and as an escape.—DISTRIB. Tropical Asia, Africa 
and America. 
Usually a tall branching plant, with broad ovate-lanceolate leaves, sometimes 9 in. 
long and 3 broad, and much smaller flowers than C. cristata, but narrow-leaved 
forms are difficult to distinguish. Roxburgh’s C. cernua is only a very narrow-leaved 
Strict form ; I doubt its being indigenous in the Rajmahal hills, where, as Dr. King 
informs me, there are traces of very old cultivations.— The sportiveness of this 
species under cultivation, and its tendency to produce cock’s-comb crests and feathery 
branched yellow pink or rose fasciated ends of the spikes, bave resulted in the 
creation of many spurious species. Its native country, like that of C. argentea, of 
which it is no doubt a form, is unknown. Burmann’s C. pyramidalis is referred by 
Moquin to Chamissoa (Allmania), but the habit is totally dissimilar to that of an 
Allmania, and quite that of C. cristata. 
** Spikes very slender, flowers in distant clusters. Utricle obtuse, top 
thickened ; style short, stigmas 2-3 recurved. Seeds minute reniform. 
3. C. pulchella, Mog. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2, 238; glabrous, leaves 
petioled ovate acute. Wight Ic. t. 1768. C. polygonoides, Wall. Cat. 6913. 
NiraniRr HILLS; in moist soil, Wight, &c. CEYLON, Walker, &c.; in hot drier 
parts of the island, Thwaites. . 
Slender, 2-3 ft. high, diffusely branched. Leaves 14-2 in., membranous, base 
cuneate truncate or subcordate ; petiole slender, 1-1} in. Spikes 4-10 in., very 
slender; clusters few-fld.; flowers 45 in. long, white. Sepals ovate-oblong, acute. 
Utricle flask-shaped, exserted. Seeds minute, reniform, black, opaque. 
4. C. polygonoides, Retz. Obs. ii. 12; branches glabrous or hispidu- 
lous, leaves petioled rounded-ovate or -cordate obtuse. Celosia trigyna, 
Willd.; Wall. Cat. 6915. 
Deccan PENINSULA; in sandy soil, Mysore and the Carnatic, &c., Heyne, &c. 
CEYLON ; north part of the island, Gardner. ow 
-10 i igh; stem woo elow, x 
long, lender, 6 broad, rion or very sparsely hairy, rarely cordate, tip rounded or 
apiculate ; petiole as long as the blade. Spikes 3-5 in. ; clusters few- AA flowers 
1j in. long, white. Sepals ovate-oblong, acute. Utricle flask-shaped, wi y 
thick exserted head.— Very near the tropical African species. 
diffusely brancbed. Leaves 3-1} in. 
UNDETERMINABLE SPECIES. 
C. ALLMANOIDES, Mog. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2, 243, from Ava, Wallich, is possibly 
an All ia. a 
C. SXSTIPULATA, Hornem. in Schrank Syllog. Ratisb. i. 202; Mog. l. c. 244.— 
Nepal. 
