432 AMARANTACE (Cooke and Wright). [A/ternanthera. 
Herbaceous or slightly woody; leaves opposite ; flowers in axillary, often 
clustered heads. 
Distris. Species about 16, chiefly in Australia and Tropical America; 3 in 
Tropical Africa. 
Woody ; outer perianth-segments spiny ... one ... (1) Achyrantha. 
Herbaceous ; outer perianth-segments not spiny ... (2) sessilis. 
1. A. Achyrantha (R. Br. Prodr. i. 417) ; stems slightly woody, 
procumbent, 1-2 ft. long, terete, pilose, much-branched ; leaves 
ovate or obovate, very obtuse, mucronate, tapering into the petiole, 
entire, $-14 in. long, 5 lin. wide, glabrous above, softly pilose 
beneath ; heads in axillary and subterminal clusters of 2-3, ovoid, 
about 5 lin. in diam., spiny ; bracts about 3 lin. long, lanceolate, 
pungent, finely denticulate in the upper part ; bracteoles slightly 
shorter and narrower ; perianth-segments slightly unequal, about 
2 lin. long, the outer lanceolate-subulate, finely denticulate near the 
apex, the anticous elliptic, laciniate and shortly mucronate at the 
apex, the 2 inner smaller, concave, bearded on the back ; filaments 
filiform ; staminodes shorter than the filaments, triangular, acute, 
entire ; utricle about } as long as the perianth, truncate or slightly 
bidentate at the apex; seed ovoid, compressed. Moguin in DC. 
Prodr. xiii. ii. 358. A. echinata, Sm. in Rees, Cyclop. Suppl. n. 10 
(1819); Moquin in le. 360 ; Baker & C. B. Cl. in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. 
vi. i. 74; Seubert in Mart. Fl. Bras. v. i. 183, t. 55. A. repens, 
Steud. Nomencl. Bot. ed. 2, i. 65.* Achyrantha repens, Linn. Sp. Pl. 
ed. i. 205, not of Forsk. Illecebrum Achyrantha, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. 
ii, 299. 
Katanart Recon: Griqualand West; Barkly West, Patons Farm, ‘‘ New- 
lands,” MacOwan, 3396! Transvaal; Daspoort, Miss Leendertz, 585! 
Eastern Recion : Tembuland ; Umtata, Polus, 8305! 
_ A native of Tropical South America, but now becoming a troublesome weed in 
Tropical and South Africa. 
2. A. sessilis (R. Br. Prodr. i. 417); stem herbaceous, creeping, 
jointed, slightly pubescent; leaves ovate-lanceolate or obovate- 
oblong, obtuse, up to 1} in. long and } in. wide, tapering into a 
short petiole, glabrous or minutely puberulous, entire ; heads sub- 
sessile in subglobose clusters of 2-4 in the axils of and shorter than 
the leaves ; bracts ovate, mucronate, not spiny ; bracteoles a little 
longer than the bracts; perianth-segments 1 lin. long, ovate, acumi- 
nate, minutely denticulate ; filaments subulate ; staminodes as long 
as the filaments, subulate, entire ; utricle obcordate, slightly longer 
ee oe 
Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 896; Baker & C. B. Cl. in Dyer, Fl. Trop. 
Afr, vi. i. 73. Illecebrum sessile, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed, ii. 300. 
