402 ILLECEBRACE& (Cooke). [Seleranthus. 
Utricle membranous, included in the indurated perianth-tube. Seed 
lenticular ; testa coriaceous ; embryo annular, surrounding farina- 
ceous albumen ; cotyledons linear ; radicle superior. 
Low rigid annual or perennial dichotomously branched herbs, glabrous or 
puberulous ; leaves opposite, connate at the base, subulate, rigid, pungent ; 
stipules 0; flowers small, green, in axillary and terminal sessile or pedunculate 
clusters, not bracteate. 
DistriB. Species about 10, cosmopolitan in the Old World. 
1. §. annuus (Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. i. 406); a small annual much- 
branched herb, 1—4 in. high ; stems slender, more or less pubescent 
or nearly glabrous ; leaves 3—} in. long, narrowly linear, sometimes 
fascicled, more or less puberulous; flowers green, in axillary and 
terminal clusters ; perianth 14-2 lin. long, divided to a little below 
the middle ; tube 10-ribbed ; lobes 5, lanceolate, acute, thick, erect 
or nearly so, with narrow membranous branches ; stamens 5, short. 
DC. Prodr. iii. 378; A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. ii. 304 ; Sm. Engl. 
Bot. ed. 3, vii. 181, t. 674; Baker & Wright in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 
vi. i. 13. 
Coast Reaion: Tulbagh Diy. ; Mitchell’s Pass, 800 ft., Bolus, 5225! Cape 
Div. ; Maitland, Wolley-Dod, 620! Simons Bay, Wright! and without precise 
locality, Harvey, 431! Caledon Div. ; by the Bot River, Burchell, 929/? | Albany 
Div. ; near Grahamstown, Schlechter, 2636! 
 Cosaam Rearon: Graaff Reinet Div. ; Sneeuwberg Range, 5000-6000 ft., 
Drége! 
Also in Europe, North and Tropical Africa and introduced into North America. 
Orper CIX. AMARANTACE A. 
(By T. Cooke and C, H. Wricut.) 
Flowers 2-(varely 1-) sexual, many of them rudimentary or obsolete, 
monochlamydeous, chaffy or scarious. Perianth-segments usually 
5 (less commonly 3 or 4), usually united near the base, much 
imbricated. Stamens hypogynous, 5 (rarely 3 or 4) opposite the 
perianth-segments ; filaments united at the base into a scarious 
(sometimes very short) tube, linear to the base, with processes 
(staminodes) on the tube alternating with them, sometimes the 
filaments wider at the base and uniting by an acute sinus into a 
longer cup-like tube without any staminodes ; staminodes resembling 
filaments or oblong, often fimbriate, or small or nearly obsolete ; 
anthers attached by the middle of the back, 1—2-celled, oblong, 
with a longitudinal slit ; pollen minute, globose. Ovary superior, 
l-celled ; style short or long or 0; stigma capitellate, simple, or 
