Part 2, 1917] AMARANTHACEAE 133 
surface, pilose-sericeous beneath or glabrate; cauline leaves on very short, broad petioles, the 
blades oval, orbicular-oval, or rounded-obovate, 5-10 mm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, obtuse or 
acutish, pilose-strigose above, densely pilose-sericeous beneath; flowers glomerate or capitate, 
the inflorescence equaling or shorter than the subtending leaves; bracts ovate, acute or acumi- 
nate, shorter than the flowers; calyx 2.5-3 mm. long, densely lanate, the sepals lanceolate to 
lance-linear, acuminate, 3-nerved, green along the nerves, elsewhere white and scarious; 
filaments linear, or dilated at the base; seed 1 mm. long, brown, shinifig. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Santo Domingo. 
7 DistTRIBuTION: In dry soil, southern and western Texas to Chihuahua and Tamaulipas; Hispani- 
ola, 
ILLUSTRATION: Hook. Ic. pl. 251. 
14. PFAFFIA Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 20. 1826. 
Serturnera Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 36. 1826. 
Hebanthe Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 42. 1826. 
Pubescent or glabrate, branched herbs or shrubs, sometimes scandent. Leaves opposite, 
sessile or short-petiolate, the blades entire. Flowers mostly perfect, bracteate and bibracte- 
olate, capitate or spicate, the spikes or heads pedunculate, often numerous and paniculate; 
perianth sessile, terete, the 5 segments free, subequal, pilose or lanate. Filaments united in a 
5-lobed tube, the lobes fimbriate, dentate, or 3-lobed; staminodia none; anthers narrowly 
oblong, 2-celled. Ovary ovoid; style very short or wanting; stigma capitate or bilobate; ovule 
1, suspended from the apex of an elongate funicle. Utricle ovoid, membranaceous, indehiscent. 
Seed inverted, smooth; embryo annular, surrounding the farinaceous éndosperm; cotyledons 
linear; radicle superior. 
Type species, Pfafiia glabraia Mart. 
1. Pfaffia Hookeriana (Hemsl.) Greenman, Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 
2: 330. 1912. 
Gomphrena Pes Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13?: 386, in part. 1849. Not Hebanthe pulverulenta 
Mart. 1826. 
Hebanthe Hookeriana Hemsl. Biol. Centr. Am. Bot. 3: 19. 1882. 
Gossypianthus Hookerianus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 543. 1891. 
Scandent shrub, much branched, the branches stout, terete, smooth, the younger ones 
and those of the inflorescence densely villous with short ascending fulvous hairs, the older 
branches glabrate; petioles stout, 3-13 mm. long; leaf-blades ovate-oblong, broadly ovate, or 
oval-oblong, 4-9 cm. long, 1.2-4 cm. wide, abruptly acute or long-acuminate at the apex, 
obtuse or tsually rounded at the base, thick and firm, pilose-strigose, or sometimes glabrate 
on the upper surface, the hairs short, slender, fulvous; flowers spicate, the spikes 1.5-5 cm. 
long, verticillately paniculate, the panicles short and narrow, the branches divaricate; bracts 
and bractlets about one fourth as long as the sepals, suborbicular, concave, short-villous; 
sepals ovate-oblong, 2-2.5 mm. long, ‘obtuse, the outer ones pilose-strigose, the inner ones 
densely pilose, the hairs soft, white, twice as long as the sepals; filaments filiform; style very 
short. 
Type LocaLtity: Cérdoba, Vera Cruz. 
DISTRIBUTION: Vera Cruz to Panama. 
DOUBTFUL SPECIES 
HEBANTHE ? PARVIFLORA Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 156. 1844. (Aiternanthera parviflora 
Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13°: 360. 1849. Iresine Benthamiana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 543. 1891.) 
Type locality not given in the original description; Moquin gives the locality as “‘In Mexico?’’; 
Index Kewensis (2: 1097) gives the distribution as Porto Rico. 
15. ACHYRANTHES L. Sp. Pl. 204. 1753. 
Alternanthera Forsk. (Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. 28, hyponym. 1775);J. F. Gmel. Syst. Nat.2: 106. 1791. 
Allaganthera Mart. Pl. Hort. Erlang. 69. 1814. 
Pityranthus Mart. Denks. Akad. Miinch. 5: 179. 1817. 
Telanthera R. Br. in Tuckey, Narr. Exped. Congo 477. 1818. 
