146 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLuUME 21 
Plants slender, 6-15 dm. high, suffrutescent at the base, much branched, the branches stri- 
ate, sparsely strigillose or glabrate, ascending or spreading; petioles 5 mm. long or less; leaf- 
blades lanceolate to ovate, 1.8-8 em. long, 0.5-3 cm. wide, long-acuminate or acute at the apex, 
rounded to acuminate at the base, rather thick, green, very sparsely strigose or often glabrate; 
peduncles simple, 2-10 cm. long, strigillose near the spikes, these subglobose to short-cylindric, 
0.9-2.5 em. long, 1 cm. thick; bracts broadly ovate, acute or acutish, shorter than the bract- 
lets, glabrous; bractlets triangular-ovate, acuminate, one third as long as the sepals, glabrous; 
sepals narrowly oblong or lance-oblong, 4-5 mm. long, actite, short-mucronate, short-pilose 
with appressed or spreading hairs, brownish-stramineous; staminodia much longer than the 
filaments, often equaling the sepals, ligulate, laciniate at the apex; utricle areolate at the 
apex; style 0.5 mm. long; stigma entire; seed subglobose, 1.5 mm. long, reddish-brown. 
oe LOcALIty: In shady forests near Chapada, vicinity of Minas Novaes, Minas Geraes, 
razil. 
DistriBution: Southern Florida; Yucat4n; Porto Rico, Grenada, and St. Vincent; also from 
British Guiana to Brazil. 
ILLUSTRATION: Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. pl. 130. 
31, Achyranthes brasiliana (L.) Standley, Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci. 
5: 74. 1915. 
Gomphrena brasiliana L,. Cent. Pl. 2: 13. 1756. 
Gomphrene brasiliensis Lam. Encyc. 1: 119. 1783. 
Gomphrena patula Wendl. Beob. 43. 1798. 
Philoxerus brasiliana Smith, in Rees, Cycl. 27: Philoxerus no. 4. 1814. 
Mogiphanes straminea Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 35. 1826. 
Telanthera dentata Mog. in DC. Prodr. 137: 378, excluding description. 1849. 
Telanthera brasiliana Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13: 382. 1849, 
Alternanthera brasiliana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 537. 1891. 
Alternanthera brasiliana strigosa Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 538, 1891. 
Alternanthera brasiliana sericea Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 538. 1891. 
Alternanthera brasiliana Moquini Uline & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 20: 453, in part. 1895. Not Telanthera 
Moquini Webb. 
Alternanthera straminea Millsp. Field Columb. Mus. Publ. Bot. 1: 16. 1895, 
Erect or decumbent annual or perennial, much branched, the branches ascending or 
suberect, striate, pilose with ascending or spreading hairs, sometimes glabrate; petioles slender, 
3-10 mim. long; leaf-blades oblong-ovate, oval, or oblong, 4-10 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide, acumi- 
nate at the apex, sometimes abruptly so, rounded to acute at the base, thin, pilose or pilose- 
sericeous; peduncles usually simple, 2-10 cm. long, pilose; spikes globose, 8-12 mm. in diameter, 
the flowers stramineous or whitish; bracts nearly as long as the bractlets, oblong-ovate, long- 
acuminate, glabrous; bractlets half as long as the sepals, ovate-oblong, long-acuminate, often 
denticulate, usually narrowly cristate near the apex, the crest denticulate; sepals ovate-lance- 
olate or lance-oblong, 3-4 mm. long, rigid, prominently nerved, acute, short-pilose; pedicel 
0.8-1 mm. long; staminodia longer than the filaments, ligulate, laciniate at the apex; utricle 
areolate at the apex; seed 0.8 mm. in diameter, reddish-brown. 
TYPE LOcCALIty: Brazil. 
DistRIBUTION: Southern Mexico to Guatemala; also in Brazil. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Lam. Tab. Encye. pl. 180; Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. pl. 135. 
DOUBTFUL SPECIES 
ALTERNANTHERA ? HERNIARIOIDES Beurl. Sv. Vet..Akad. Handl. 1854: 143. 1856. 
Described from specimens collected at Porto Bello, Panama. Probably not of the Amar- 
anthaceae, and excluded, by the description, from Achyranthes. 
ALTERNANTHERA MEXICANA Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13?: 352, 1849. Type, Berlandier 431, 
“‘culta in horto mexicano.” 
GOMPHRENA FLAVA L. Sp. Pl. 224. 1753. “Habitat in Vera Cruce.’’ From the de- 
scription probably an Achyranthes, perhaps A. gracilis. 
‘TELANTHERA PUBIFLORA GLOMERATA Mog. in DC. Prodr. 137: 376. 1849. Based in 
part on Galeotti 444 (in part), from the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico. 
‘TELANTHERA PUBIFLORA MONOCEPHALA Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13?; 376. 1849. Type 
collected in Panama. 
