AMAKANTHACEAE. 125 



5. Amaranthus spinosus L. Sp. PL 991. 1753. 



Stem stout, ridged, erect or ascending, glabrous below, somewhat pubes- 

 cent above, usually much branched, sometimes red, 3-12 dm. high. Leaves 

 ovate, slender-petioled, rhombic-ovate or the upper lanceolate, acute at both 

 ends, 2-8 cm. long, with a pair of rigid stipular spines at each node, the mid- 

 vein excurrent; flowers monoecious, the pistillate in numerous capitate axillary 

 clusters, the staminate in dense terminal spreading or drooping spikes 2-18 cm. 

 long; bracts lanceolate-subulate, about as long as or longer than the 5 scarious 

 oblong mucronate-tipped 1-nerved sepals, and the thin imperfectly circum- 

 scissile utricle; stamens 5; style-branches 3; seed black, shining, nearly 1 mm. 

 broad. 



Waste grounds. Great Harbor Cay. and New Providence : United States : West 

 Indies; all tropical aiid warm temperate regions. SPINY AMARANTH. CALALUE- 



6. Amaranthus dubius Mart. Hort. Erlang. 197. 1814. 



Amaranthus tristis Willd. Hist. Amar. 21. 1790. Not. L. 1753. 



Glabrous, or somewhat pubescent above; stem erect, often much branched. 

 1 m. high or less. Leaves long-petioled, the slender petiole 2-9 cm. long, the 

 blade ovate, 2-12 cm. long, acute or obtuse and usually emarginate at the apex, 

 rounded or acute at the base ; flowers monoecious, in slender, often drooping 

 and numerous dense, terminal and axillary spikes, 5-25 cm. long, and some- 

 times in small, dense axillary clusters ; bracts ovate or elliptic, acute, shorter 

 than or about as long as the sepals; sepals of the pistillate flowers 1.5-2 mm. 

 long, mucronate, often emarginate, 1-nerved ; stamens 5 ; style-branches 3 ; 

 utricle a little longer than the sepals, rugulose, dehiscent at the middle ; seed 

 dark brown or black, circular, sharp-edged, 1 mm. in diameter. 



Waste places near dwellings. Abaco, New Providence, Great Guana Cay, Cat 

 Island. T.ittle San Salvador. Fortune Island and Grand Turk : West Indies : Cen- 

 tral and South America ; tropical Africa ; adventive in Europe. SOUTHERN PIGWEED. 



7. Amaranthus hybridus L. Sp. PL 990. 1753. 



Stem usually slender, erect, 0.3-2 5 m. tall, often much-branched, villous 

 above. Leaves long-petioled, 1.5 dm. long or less, ovate to lanceolate, usually 

 acute ; spikes linear-cylindric, 2-12 cm. long, axillary and forming dense 

 terminal panicles, ascending, or somewhat spreading; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 

 about twice as long as the 5 oblong acute or cuspidate sepals ; stamens 5 ; 

 style-branches 3 ; utricle scarcely wrinkled, circumscissile ; seed dark brown or 

 black, shining, 1 mm. in diameter. 



Waste places. Fortune Island, Anguilla Isles: United States: Bermuda; Cuba; 

 Mexico. A. paniculatus as to Bahamian references. SLE.NDER PIGWEED. 



3. CENTKOSTACHYS Wall, in Eoxb. Fl. Ind. 2: 497. 1824. 



Herbs, some species somewhat woody, with opposite membranous broad 

 leaves, and small green flowers sessile in slender elongated terminal spikes, 

 the calyx deflexed after anthesis. Sepals 4 or 5, cartilaginous, narrow, acumi- 

 nate or aristate. Stamens 4 or 5 ; filaments subulate ; anthers 4-eelled. Ovary 

 1-celled; ovule 1; style filiform; stigma capitate. Utricle thin-walled, inde- 

 hiscent. [Greek, prickly-spike.] About 12 species, of warm and tropical 

 regions. Type species: Centrostachys aquatica Wall. 



