236 AMARANTH FAMILY. 



94. AMARANTACE.S], AMARANTH FAMILY. 



Weeds and some ornamental plants, chiefly herbs, essentially like 

 the foregoing family, but the llt/wrr- provided with dry and mostly 

 scarious crowded persistent braels, and the fruit sometimes several- 

 seeded. The cultivated sort- are ornamental, like Immortelles, on 

 account of their colored dry bracts which do not wither. 



1. Leaves alternate, mostly long-pttluled : anthers 2-cfl/nf. 



1. AMARAXTI'S. Flowers moiicccion- or polygamou-. each with 3 bracts 



Calyx of .">, or sometimes 3, equal erect sepals, smooth. Stamens 5. - 

 times 2 or 3. Stigmas 2 or o. Ovule solitary, on a stalk from the base of the 

 ovary. Fruit an utricle, 2-3-pointed at apex, usually opening all round 

 tran>verse]y, the upper part falling oil' as a lid (l,<>-o'ns. p. 121. fig. 387), 

 di-charging the seed. Flowers in axillary or terminal spiked clusters. 



2. CELOSIA. Flower- perfect. Ovules and seeds numerous, otherwise nearly 



as Amarantus, but the crowded spikes imbricated with shining colored 

 bracts. In cultivation the spikes are often changed into broad crests. 



2. Leaves opposite : anthers l-celled. 



3. GOMl'IIIiEXA. Flowers perfect, chiefly in terminal round head?, crowded 



with the firm colored bracts. Calyx 5-parted or of 5 sepals. Stamens fi, 

 monadelphous below: filaments broad. 3-cleff at summit, the middle lobe 

 bearing a l-celled anther (l.e--on-, p. 102, fig. 290). Utricle 1-seeded. 



Achyranth.es or Iresine Verschaffeltii is lately cult, for its red 



foliage, a poor substitute for Coleus, except in shade, where it has clear red 

 .stems, its ovate or roundish opposite 1< \i\ es strongly veined or blotched with red, 

 or wholly crimson. 



Iresine celosioides, a wild tall weed, with opposite leaves, and panicles 

 ofsinall white-^ooliy tlo\\rrs, is common S. \V. 



Acnida cannabina, in salt-marshes along the coast, is a tall annual, like 

 an Amaranth, but dia-cious, bracts inconspicuous, and the fleshy indeliiscent 

 fruit 3 - 5-angled and crested. 



1. AMARANTUS, AMARANTH. (From Greek for wifrdhuj.) Coarse 

 weeds of cult, and waste grounds, and one or two cultivated for ornament 

 fi. late summer. Bracts commonly awn-pointed. i 



1. RED AMAKANTHS, the flower-clusters or the leaves tinrjcd with red or purple. 



A. caudatUS, I'IMNTES' FI.ATIIKU. Cult, from India: tall, stout; lca\<s 

 ovate, bright green ; spikes red, naked, long and slender, in a drooping panicle, 

 the terminal one forming a very long tail. 



A. hypOChondriaCUS. "Cult, from Mexico, &o. : stout; leaves oblong, 

 often reddish-tinged; llouer-chisters deep crimson-purple, short and thick, the 

 upper making an interrupted blunt spike. 



A. paniculatUS. Coarse weed in gardens : the oblong-ovate or lance- 

 oblong leaves often blotched or veined with purple; tlovuTs in rather slender 

 purplish-tinged spikes collected in an erect terminal panicle. 



A. melanchblicus, LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING. Cult, from China or India: 



rather low ; stems and stalks red; the ovate thin leaves dark purple or partly 

 green; or, in var. TIJK oi.oit, greenish with red or violet and yellow variously 



mixed ; sepals and stamens only :!. 



2. GUKKN AMUIVNUIS, or PIGWEEDS, ./Zower* and leaves green or greenish. 



A. retrofleXUS, COMMON riowr.i:i>: erect, roughish-pubescent or smooth- 

 er ; spikes crowded in a -till' panicle, the awn-pointed bracts rigid. 



A. 8pin6sUS, THOI:NV A. Waste ground, chiclly S. : dull green leaves 

 with a pair of spines in their axils; (lowers small, yellowish-green, in round 

 axillarv cluster- and in a long terminal spike. 



A. albus. Roadsides and streets, spreading over the ground ; with obovate 

 and spatnlate leaves, Mowers all in small clusters in their axils and covered by 

 rigid sharp-pointed bracts ; sepals .'3 ; stamens 2 or 3. 



