Part 2, 1917] AMARANTHACEAE 125 
Annual or perennial; stems simple or sparsely branched, 6-10 dm. long, ascending or 
decumbent, geniculate, often rooting at the nodes, the branches ascending or spreading, sulcate, 
strigose-puberulent or glabrate; petioles stout, 2-10 mm. long; leaf-blades oval to rhombic- 
elliptic, 5-16 cm. long, 2-6 cm. wide, acuminate at the apex, often abruptly so, cuneate at the 
base, thin, bright-green, slightly paler beneath, strigose or sometimes glabrate; spikes terminal 
and axillary, 4-20 cm. long, 6-7 mm. thick, obtuse, the rachis short-villous; glomerules short- 
pedicellate, 3-4 mm. long, each containing 2 perfect flowers; bracts ovate-lanceolate, long- 
attenuate, glabrous; bractlets ovate-oblong, long-acuminate or attenuate, shorter than the 
flowers; sepals lance-oblong, acutish, 3-nerved, villous; segments of the sterile flowers 3-6, 
twice as long as the perianth, at least in age, pilose below; staminodia one third as long as the 
filaments, irregularly incised-dentate at the apex; seed oblong-ovate, 2 mm. long, fuscous- 
brownish, lustrous. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Banks of the Magdalena River near Mompos, Colombia. 
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Mexico to Panama; Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola; also from Colom- 
bia to Brazil and Chile. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. pl. 156, pl. 158, f. 1; E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 318: f. 61, A. 
9. CENTROSTACHYS Wall. in Roxb. Fl. Ind. 2: 497. 1824. 
Cadelaria Raf. Fl. Tell. 3: 39. 1837. 
Stachyarpogophora Vaill.; Maza, Fl. Haban. 92. 1897. 
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes suffrutescent at the base, erect or decumbent, 
glabrous or pubescent. Leaves opposite, petiolate, the blades entire. Flowers perfect, 
bracteate and bibracteolate, deflexed in age, white or greenish, in slender, elongate, simple 
or branched spikes; perianth 4~5-parted, indurate in age, the segments subequal, glabrous or 
pubescent, nerved. Stamens 5 or rarely 2 or 4; filaments filiform-subulate, united at the base; 
pseudostaminodia quadrate, erose, lacerate, or entire, often cristate dorsally; anthers 4-celled. 
Ovary oblong, subcompressed, glabrous; style filiform; stigma capitate; ovule 1, suspended 
from the apex of an elongate funicle. Utricle included in the perianth, rounded or areolate 
at the apex, membranaceous, indehiscent. Seed inverted, oblong; embryo annular; endosperm 
farinaceous; cotyledons linear or lanceolate, plane; radicle erect. 
Type species, Centrostrachys aquatica Wall. 
Leaf-blades orbicular to pbovate-orbicular, rounded and very abruptly acute at the 
apex; sepals 4 mm. long. 1. C. indica. 
Leaf-blades oval to broadly ovate, acuminate; sepals 6-7 mm. long. 2. C. aspera. 
1. Centrostachys indica (L.) Standley, Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci. 
5: 75. 1915. 
Achyranthes aspera indica I,. Sp. Pl. 204. 1753. 
Achyranthes indica Mill. Gard. Dict. ed. 8. Achyranthes no. 2. 1768. 
Achyranthes obtusifolia Lam. Encye. 1: 545. 1785. 
Cadelaria indica Raf. Fl. Tell. 3: 39. 1837. 
Achyranthes aspera Mog. in DC. Prodr. 132: 314. 1849. Not A. aspera. 1753. 
Stachyarpagophora aspera pubescens Maza, Fl. Haban. 93. 1897. 
Achyranthes aspera simplex Millsp. Field Columb. Mus. Publ. Bot. 2: 36. 1900. 
Erect or ascending annual; stems 3-24 dm. high, much branched or rarely simple, the 
branches spreading or ascending, terete or obscurely quadrangular, cinereous; petioles 3-15 
mim. long; leaf-blades rhombic-orbicular or obovate-orbicular, 2-7.5 em. long and nearly or 
quite as wide, rounded and very abruptly acute or acutish at the apex, rounded to cuneate at 
the base, pilose-sericeous on both surfaces or glabrate above, thin; flowers green, spicate, the 
spikes terminal, 10-40 cm. long, 6-7 mm. thick, obtuse, the rachis pilose or villous; bracts 
broadly ovate or orbicular, the midnerve indurate and extended into a rigid spine as long 
as or longer than the body of the bract; bractlets ovate, long-aristate, shorter than the perianth; 
sepals narrowly lanceolate, 4 mm. long, acuminate, green, not nerved, subcartilaginous; 
staminodia slightly shorter than the filaments, subquadrilateral, the apex erose-dentate, the 
dorsal surface produced into a deeply laciniate crest; style longer than the stamens, slender; 
utricle oblong, truncate above, glabrous; seed oblong, 1.5-2 mm. long, fuscous, dull. 
Tyee Locality: India. ; ; ; 
DISTRIBUTION: Florida and southern Alabama; West Indies; Costa Rica and Panama; also in 
th America, Africa, eastern and southern Asia, and the islands of the Pacific. 
oe ILLUSTRATIONS: Wight, Ic. pl. 1777 (as Achyranthes aspera); Fawc. & Rendle, Fl, Jam. 3: f. 43. 
