136 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLuME 21 
broadly oval, 1.3-5 cm. long, rounded at the apex, apiculate and mucronate, firm, prominently 
veined, appressed-pilose when young but soon glabrate; heads axillary, solitary, sessile, 8-10 
mui. long; bracts and bractlets lance-oblong, equaling the perianth, attenuate to an aristate 
apex, glabrous; sepals oblong or ‘ovate-oblong, 5-6 mm. long, acuminate to a long-aristate 
rigid tip, 3-nerved, stramineous, sparsely villous near the base and along the nerves, the inner 
sepals narrower and shorter than the outer ones; filaments linear, the staminodia slightly 
shorter, triangular, remotely dentate; style short; utricle strongly compressed, truncate; seed 
1.5 mm. long, dark-brown. 
TYPE LocaLIty: Banks of the Orinoco near the cataract of Maipures, Venezuela. 
Distripution: Adventive in southern Florida and Alabama; eastern Mexico; Cuba and Ja- 
maica; also from Venezuela to Bolivia and Uruguay. 
ILLUSTRATION: Mart. Fl. Bras. 51: pl. 55. 
3. Achyranthes repens L. Sp. Pl. 205. 1753. 
Ilecebrum Achyrantha I,. Sp. Pl. ed. 2.299. 1762. 
Achyranthes mucronata Lam. Encyc. 1: 547, 1785. 
Achyranthes radicans Cav. Anal. Ci. Nat. 3: 27. 1801. 
Alternanthera Achyrantha R. Br. Prodr. 417. 1810. 
Paronychia Achyrantha Desf. Tabl. Bot. ed. 2.54. 1815. 
Pityranthus crassifolius Mart. Denks. Akad. Minch. 5: 179. 1817. 
? Steivemis ciliata Raf. New Fl. 4: 45. 1838. 
Alternanthera Achyrantha parvifolia Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13%: 359.. 1849. 
Aliernanthera villiflora Scheele, Linnaea 22: 149. 1849. 
Alternanthera repens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 536. 1891, 
Alternanthera parvifolia Fawc. & Rendle, Fl. Jam. 3: 139. 1914. 
Perennial from a thick woody vertical root; stems prostrate or procumbent, 1-5 dm. 
long, much branched, the branches stout or slender, striate, white-villous, sometimes glabrate 
in age; leaves numerous, often crowded, the petioles 4-10 mm. long, the blades rhombic-ovate, 
oval, or obovate, 0.5—2.5 cm. long, 0.3-1.5 cm. wide, obtuse at the apex, acuminate or acute 
at the base, firm, green, sparsely villous when young but soon glabrate; heads ovoid or short- 
cylindric, 4-15 mm. long, 5-8 mm. thick, axillary, sessile, usually glomerate, the flowers pale- 
yellowish; bracts and bractlets shorter than the sepals, ovate, mucronate-pungent, glabrous 
or pilose, the margins usually ciliate-denticulate; sepals very unequal, the outer ones oval or 
broadly ovate, 3-5 mm. long, acutish, short-aristate, 3-nerved, villous along the nerves, espe- 
cially near the base, with jointed, retrorsely scaberulous, white hairs, the inner sepals linear- 
subulate; filaments triangular-linear, the tube short; staminodia usually shorter than the 
filaments, triangular or subulate, entire or rarely denticulate; style very short; utricle ovoid- 
orbicular; seed ovate-orbicular, 1—1.5 mm. long, reddish-brown, shining. 
TYPE Locality: Turkestan. 
DISTRIBUTION: South Carolina to Florida and southern New Mexico; adventive in Los Angeles 
County, California; Mexico to Panama; Jamaica, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles; 
also from Colombia to Argentina and Peru, and in southern Europe, Asia, and the East Indies. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. #1. 152; Fawc. & Rendle, Fl. Jam. 3: f. 45. 
4, Achyranthes polygonoides (L.) Lam. Encye. 1: 547. 1785. 
Gomphrena polygonoides L,. Sp. Pl. 225. 1753. 
Illecebrum polygonoides L. Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 300. 1762. 
Alternanthera polygonoides R. Br. Prodr. 417. 1810. 
Bucholzia polygonoides Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 51. 1826. 
Alternanthera paronychioides St. Hil. Voy. Distr. Diam. 2: 439, 1833. 
Steivemis repens Raf. Fl. Tell. 3: 41. 1837. 
Telanthera polygonoides Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13?: 363. 1849. 
Telanthera polygonoides radicans Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13?: 364. 1849. 
? Telanthera polygonoides compacta Mog. in DC. Prodr. 137: 364. 1849. ; 
Alternanthera ficoidea Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 67. 1859. Not Gomphrena ficoidea IL, 1753. 
Prostrate herbaceous perennial; stems 1-8 dm. long, branched, the branches stout, striate, 
often rooting at the nodes, white-villous when young, glabrate in age; petioles 4-8 mm. long, 
densely white-villous at the base; leaf-blades oval, elliptic, or ovate-rhombic, 0.6-2.5 cm. long, 
3~11 mm. wide, acute or obtuse at the apex, acuminate or attenuate at the base, green, densely 
villous beneath when young but soon glabrate, glabrous or nearly so on the upper surface; 
heads axillary, sessile, solitary or glomerate, usually as broad as long, the flowers white; bracts 
and bractlets half as long as the sepals or shorter, ovate, acute, mucronate, glabrous; sepals 
