Parr 2, 1917] AMARANTHACEAE 97 
Inflorescence of simple terminal spikes 1.5-2 cm. in diameter; sepals bright-white, 
pink, or red, 6-9 mm. long. 
Inflorescence of terminal or axillary panicles composed of few or numerous spikes 
3-10 mm. in diameter; sepals stramineous to dark-brown, 2-6 mm. long. 
Sepals 5—6 mm. long, prominently nerved. 
1. C. argentea. 
Leaf-blades hastately lobed; stigmas 2. 2. C. Palmeri. 
Leaf-blades not lobed; stigmas 3-5. 
Sepals obtuse; stigmas 4 or 5. 3. C. pleiogyna. 
Sepals acuminate to acutish; stigmas 3. 
Seeds 5-8; leaf-blades ovate to lanceolate, decurrent nearly to the 
base of the petiole. 4. C. virgata. 
Seeds about 20; leaf-blades deltoid to triangular-lanceolate, shortly 
decurrent. 5. C, nitida. 
Sepals 2.5 mm. long or less, obscurely nerved. 
Leaf-blades, at least most of them, hastately lobed, puberulent beneath. 6. C. floribunda. 
Leaf-blades entire, glabrous. 
Utricle stipitate; sepals dark-brown. 7. C. Moquini. 
Utricle sessile; sepals stramineous. 8. C. Orcuttii. 
1. Celosia argentea L. Sp. Pl. 205. 1753. 
Celosia cristata L. Sp. Pl. 205. 1753. 
Celosia margaritacea L. Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 297. 1763. 
Celosia marilandica Retz. Obs. Bot. 3:27. 1783. 
Celosia pallida Salisb. Prodr. 145. 1796. 
Amaranthus purpureus Nieuw]. Am. Midl. Nat. 3: 279. 1914. 
Erect annual; stems stout, 3~10 dm. high, simple or much branched, the branches erect 
or ascending, green, glabrous; petioles 3 cm. long or less, often margined to the base; leaf- 
blades 4-12 cm. long, 0.3-6 cm. wide, linear to lanceolate, ovate, or rounded-ovate, acute to 
attenuate or abruptly acuminate at the apex, rounded and somewhat decurrent or acute or 
attenuate at the base, often sessile, entire, bright-green, glabrous, the upper blades usually 
smaller and narrower than the lower ones; flowers subsessile, in dense spikes terminating the 
branches, the spikes oblong or elongate, 2-20 cm. Jong, 1.5—2 cm. in diameter, obtuse or acute; 
bracts lanceolate or ovate, half as long as the sepals or shorter, acuminate, carinate, scarious; 
sepals 6-9 mm. long, lance-oblong, acute, carinate, usually parallel-nerved at the base, thin, 
white, pink, or red; stamens 5, the filaments slender, sléghtly exceeding the ovary; style 
slender, glabrous, equaling or exceeding the sepals; stigmas 2 or 3, very short; utricle ovoid 
or subglobose; seeds 3-8, about 1.2 mm. in diameter, rotund, nearly smooth, black and 
lustrous. 
Tyre LocaLity: Tropical America. 
DISTRIBUTION: Central America and the West Indies; occasionally escaped from cultivation 
in the eastern United States; also in tropical South America, Asia, and Africa. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Martyn, Hist. Pl. Rar. pl. 7; Rheede, Hort. Malab. 10: $l. 38, 39; Wight, Ic. 
pl. 1767; E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 3: f. 51, A-C. 
2. Celosia Palmeri S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 18: 143. 1883. 
Low shrub, much branched; branches slender, glabrous up to the inflorescence, or sparsely 
puberulent; petioles slender, 3-12 mm. long; leaf-blades lanceolate to lance-triangular in out- 
line, 1.5—-5 cm. long, 4-25 mm. wide, more or less asymmetric, hastately lobed, the lobes 
shallow and rounded, acute or obtuse at the apex, obtuse to cuneate at the base, shortly de- 
current, green, glabrous, or sparsely puberulent beneath; flowers few, sessile in short spikes 
1-2 cm. long and 8 mm. in diameter, 2-5 spikes clustered at the end of each branch, the rachises 
of the inflorescence sparsely tomentulose; bracts ovate or ovate-oblong, half as long as the 
sepals or shorter, acute to acuminate, often with a pungent tip, sparsely villous; sepals 5 mm. 
long, oblong, acute or acutish, pale- or deep-brown, thin, many-nerved; stamens 5, the filaments 
equaling or exceeding the ovary, dilated at the base, the intervening sinuses obtuse; style 
longer than the ovary; stigmas 2, shorter than the style; utricle elongate-ovoid, shorter than 
the sepals; seeds 3 or 4, rotund, 1 mm. in diameter, smooth, black, shining. 
Type LocaLity: Monclova, Coahuila. : 
DISTRIBUTION: Western Texas and northeastern Mexico. 
