Amaranthus,| AMARANTACEE (Cooke and Wright). 409 
Annual, erect or decumbent ; leaves alternate, mostly simple, usually entire, 
petiolate ; flowers small or minute, arranged in dense axillary heads or in terminal 
paniculate spikes, white, green, rosy or purplish ; bracts and perianth usually 
persistent. 
aot ae Species about 25, common weeds in all the warmer parts of the 
world. 
Sepals 5 ; stamens 5: 
YLeaf-axils furnished with spines se kee .-. (1) spinosus. 
Leaf-axils without spines : 
Sepals 1} lin. long, oblong-lanceolate, the mid-rib 
produced into an acicular point... ies (2) paniculatus. 
Sepals 1 lin. long, linear-oblong, obtuse, often emar- 
ginate a ei: av ey eae (3) retroflexus. 
Sepals 3; stamens 3: 
Capsule cireumscissile ; flowers not pedicellate : 
Bracteoles longer than the perianth; sepals sub- 
acute, cuspidate ... is eee gay ... (4) Thunbergii. 
Bracteoles equal to or shorter than the perianth ; 
sepals obtuse, with a short slender mucro_—... (5) Blitum. 
Capsule indehiscent ; flowers pedicellate me ... (6) viridis. 
beneath, with spines in the lower axils sometimes 2 in. long ; main 
nerves numerous, slender, conspicuous below, white; petioles 
reaching 14 in. long, slender; flowers very numerous, sessile, in 
acute, those of the female oblong-obovate ; stamens 5; capsule 
ovoid, membranous, circumscissile about the middle; style 0; 
stigmas 2, reaching } lin. long, divaricate ; seeds 4 lin. in diam., 
lenticular, with obtuse margins, shining, black. Mogquin in DC. 
Prodr. xiii. ii. 260 ; Wight, Icon. t, 513 ; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 
718; Baker & C. B. Cl. in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. vi. i. 32. 
Katanarrt Reoron:; Transvaal ; Shiluvane, Junod, 1062! a common roadside 
weed around Pretoria, Burtt-Davy, 107D! Miss Leendertz, 7 ! 
Eastern Recion: Natal; near Durban, Wood, 1762! Wilms, 2238! in sandy 
places near Ixopo, 3800 ft., Schlechter, 6679 ! 
Also in Tropical Africa and India. 
2. A. paniculatus (Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. ii, 1406) ; a tall handsome 
plant 3-5 ft. or more high; stem stout, more or less grooved, 
glabrous or puberulous ; leaves 2-3 in. long, 1-1} in. broad, elliptic- 
lanceolate, tapering to both ends, obsoletely punctulate, often 
mucronulate ; nerves prominent below ; petioles reaching 2} in. 
long ; flowers numerous ; panicles much-branched ; spikes erect or 
spreading, cylindric, gold-coloured or red, the central spikes the 
longest ; bracteoles 2} lin. long, exceeding the sepals, narrowly 
