ee 
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MONADELPHIA. PENTANDRIA. 79 
Herbaceous, leaves opposite, entire, without stipules; 
panicle simple, terminal; spikes opposite, sessile; flowers 
unibracteate; bractes acute, adhering to the lanuginous 
rachis. sot! 
Species. O. Floridana. 
Descrip'. Root perennial? Stem simple, erect, pu- 
bescent, glandular, terete and striate, tumid at the joints. 
Leaves sessile, femote, long and lanceolate, acute, upper 
side singularly scabrous, the papillz minute, very nume- 
rous, and shortly piliferous, under surface densely and se- 
riceously lanuginous. Panicle virgate, naked, simple; 
spikes remote, sessile, and opposite, 10 to 15 lines long. 
Flowers imbricated, whitish. Exterior calix diaphanous- 
ly membranaceous, truncate and emarginaté, about half 
the length of the interior; interior ovate, compressed, co- 
vered with along and silky tomentum similar to cotton as 
-in Gomphrena, summit conniyent, 5-cleft, enlarging over 
the fruit it becomes at length cartilaginously indurated, 
and muricate with 2 crested lacerate margins, there are 
also 2 dorsal protuberances on either side near the base, 
so that the fruit perfectly resembles that of several spe- 
cies of Atriplex when deprived of the tomentum. An- 
theriferous tube about the length of the calix, having a 
margin of 5 linear teeth, anthers linear, attached by the 
middle. Utriculus 1-seeded, ovate-lanceolate, compress- 
ed. Seed brown. Has. On the banks of the Altamaha, 
Florida.—Baldwyn. This plant appears almost interme- 
diate by allied to Gomphrena and Achyranthes. 
A second species of this genus is Gomphrena interrupta 
of Jamaica, so well illustrated by L’Heritier, Stirp. Nov. 
1. p. 5. t. 3. it possesses precisely the habit of our 0. 
floridana, but the leaves are spathulate and obtuse, the 
stem not quite erect, and the spikes approximate. 
472, ACHYRANTHES. ZL. 
alia 5-leaved. Corolla none. Squamule 5, 
united into a tube at the base, the points fim- 
briate and alternating with the stawnina, Stigma 
— bifid. Seed solitary, covered by the connivent : 
segments of the calix. ee — 
Shrubby or herbaceous, branching; leaves opposite and 
alternate; spies terminal: Bowers sess eet 
ee 
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