416 AMARANTHACEAE 
5. ACHYRANTHES L. Herbs (ours perennial). Leaves opposite: blades 
entire or nearly so. Flowers perfect, in head-like spikes. Sepal eq 
white or gree a Filam ents united at the base. Staminodia meee sage: 
than the anthers. Styles united. aiii ME Forsk. ]—4About 45 species, 
most numerous in the tropics.—CHAFF-FLOWERS. 
Spikes sessile, axillar I. REPENTES. 
Spikes terminating elongate peduncles. II. RAMOSISSIMAE. 
I. REP 
SNE tube T short, the doe d Sor ave the fila- 
nts, tire or merely hed. 
Sepals rigidly ed tipr E 
Sepals 6 mm. lon r more: staminodia toothed : leaf- 
blades Gauge as broad as long. 1. A. leiantha. 
Sepals 5 mm. long or eS staminodia entire: leaf- 
blades longer than bro 2. A. repens. 
Sepals merely acute, nor rigid- tipped. 3. A. polygonoides. 
Stamen-tube elongate: staminodia equalling the filaments or 
much longer, laciniate. 4. A. maritima. 
. RAMOSISSIMAE 
Flowers sessile in the bractlets: leaf-blades narrow, linear 
or narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, not acumin nate. 5. A. philoczeroides. 
Flowers stalked, the stalk articulate, 5-grooved: leaf-blades 
road, ovate or elliptic, varying to broadest above the 
middle or below it, more or less acuminate. 6. A. ramosissima. 
1. A. leiantha (Seub.) Standley. Branches prostrate, mostly less than 1 m. 
long, 32 villous: Ax blades id b APA or broadly oval, varying to ovate or 
dein 1.3-5 abruptly shor 
pointed, EA HOMO the m idrib ava 
dam E sepals lanc o to elliptie: 
iae the larger ones becoming 4.5-5 mm. 
ong, rely longer, prominently subulate- 
malle i 
t : 
ments subulate, alternating wit . lanceolate 
n n diam 
eter.—Waste grounds and 1 roadsides, Qu 
ls Ww to Ala. Nat. of S. A—(W. I., 
» €. A.) 
A. repens L. Stem and branches pros. 
trate and often creeping, 1-5 dm. lon ng, co- 
piously pubescent with white ha irs le af. 
blades broadly D oval, or edid 8-20 em. long, usually abruptly pointed: 
sepals lanceolate ovate- lanceolate, abruptly pointed: utricle ovoid-globose. 
[ Alternanthera ds tha R. Br. Alter MP repens (L.) Kuntze]— 
aste-places, cult. grounds, and sidewalks, Coastal Plain and southwestern prov- 
inces, Fla. to Tex., Calif., and S. C. Nat. of Asia.—(W. I., Mex 3J 
9. A. polygonoides (L.) Lam. Plant similar to that of A. repens, but less 
pubescent or glabrate: leaf-blades nomial dead to elliptic, 5-20 mm. long, 
obtuse or acute: sepals elliptic, acute, the larger ming about 5 mm 
long: utricle globular or globular- a [ Altern bate eas paronyehioides St. 
Hil. Te d is rid ides Moq.|—Cult. grounds nee oadsides s o La., 
and N. C. of Trop. Am.—(W. I., Mes, C. A., PS —All yea 
4. A. maritima (Mart.) Standley. Stem and branches procumbent or ‘pros- 
trate and creeping, 3-21 dm. long, Sie except at the leaf-axils: leaf-blades 
