Par? 2, 1917] AMARANTHACEAE 167 
elsewhere with very short stout soft hairs, the internodes 1.5-10 cm. long; leaves usually 
asymmetric, very variable in outline, the lower ones much broader and more obtuse than the 
upper ones; petioles stout, 2-20 mm. long, the uppermost leaves usually sessile or subsessile; 
blades of the lower leaves broadly rhombic-ovate, often as broad as long, frequently with fas- 
cicles of small leaves in the axils, 3~6 cm. long, 2-4 ecm. wide, rounded to acutish at the apex, 
rounded or abruptly acute at the base and more or less decurrent, thick and firm, yellowish- 
green, scabrous or smooth on the upper surface, pubescent beneath along the veins with short 
stiff hairs, scabrous and denticulate on the margins, the veins prominent beneath, coarse, the 
lateral ones diverging at a very acute angle, nearly parallel and all extending more than half 
way to the apex; blades of the upper leaves ovate to narrowly ovate or oval, obtuse or acute, 
smaller than the lower blades but with similar pubescence; inflorescence a narrow, dense, 
much branched panicle, 1.5-4 dm. long and 3-9 cm. broad, the branches erect or ascending, 
sparsely villous; spikelets stout, densely flowered, 4-23 mum. long; bracts one half to one 
third as long as the sepals, ovate-orbicular, acute, entire; sepals 1—-1.3 mm. long, elliptic-oblong, 
yellowish-white, acuminate to acutish, those of the pistillate flowers 3-nerved; lobes of the 
staminal cup broadly rounded; utricle shorter than the sepals; seed suborbicular, 0.6 mm. in 
diameter, dark reddish-brown, shining. 
TypPEe Locality: Near the city of Durango, Mexico. 
DistR1IBUTION: Dry rocky hillsides, western Texas to southern Arizona and Sonora, and south- 
ward to central Mexico. 
32. Iresine Herbstii Hook. Gard. Chron. 1864: 654. Jl 1864. 
Achyranthes ? Verschaffeltit Lemaire, Ill. Hortic. 11: pl. 409. Au 1864, 
Iresine Verschaffeltiit Lemaire, Ill. Hortic. 11: under fl. 418. N 1864. 
Annual; stems erect or ascending, rather stout and succulent, usually branched, sparsely 
short-villosulous, especially about the nodes, becoming glabrate in age, the internodes short 
or elongate; leaves numerous, often with fascicles of smaller ones in the axils, the petioles 
slender, 1-5 cm. long, sparsely short-villous or glabrate; blades suborbicular or ovate-orbicular, 
2.5-6.5 cm, long, and usually of equal or greater breadth, rounded to truncate at the base, 
usually short-decurrent, deeply retuse at the apex, or sometimes merely rounded, or the upper- 
most acute, thick and succulent, purplish-red, or green and striped with yellow or pink along 
the veins, glabrous on the upper surface or sparsely scaberulous, beneath rather sparsely 
furnished with short, appressed, often lustrous yellowish hairs, glabrate in age; flowers dioe- 
cious, the panicles naked or nearly so, usually much branched, 1-2 dm. long, the slender 
branches ascending or spreading, short-villous with usually lustrous hairs, the spikelets slender, 
loosely flowered, sessile or short-pedicellate; flowers stramineous, the pistillate ones copiously 
lanate; bracts and bractlets ovate-orbicular, obtuse, glabrous, half as long as the sepals, 
entire; sepals about 1 mm. long, ovate to oblong, obtuse or acutish, those of the pistillate 
flowers 3-nerved; utricle shorter than the sepals; seed 0.5 mm. in diameter. 
Type Locatity: Described from cultivated plants. 
DIstRIBUTION: Brazil; frequent in cultivation; naturalized in southern Mexico and in 
Guadeloupe, and probably elsewhere in the West Indies 
InLustRations: Ill. Hortic. 11: pl. 409; Bot. Mag. “pl. 5499; Fl. Serres pl. 1601. 
DOUBTFUL SPECIES 
AERVA SANGUINOLENTA LANCEOLATA Mog. in DC. Prodr. 13%: 301. 1849. Based on 
specimens from Mexico. The genus Aerva is not known from the Western Hemisphere, and 
the specimens are probably some species of Ivesine. 
IRESINE GossyPINA Nees, Linnaea 19: 709. 1847. Stems fruticose, terete, tomentose; 
leaves ovate, tomentose and white beneath; panicle terminal, pyramidal, subdecomposite; 
pubescence of the flowers longer than the calyx, very dense. In Mexico (De Berghes 132). 
20. LITHOPHILA Sw. Prodr. 14. 1788. 
Perennial lanate herbs from thick woody roots; stems decumbent or erect, leafy or naked. 
Leaves mostly basal and rosulate. Flowers small, perfect, bracteate and bibracteolate, form- 
ing dense, subglobose, axillary or terminal, sessile or pedunculate spikes or heads; perianth 5- 
parted, sessile, dorsally compressed, the 2 interior segments narrower. Stamens 2; filaments 
