AMAEAXTHACEAE. 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 eircum- 

 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 and 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. Little 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 em. 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, eireumscissile ; seed dark brown or 

 black, shining, 1 mm. in diameter. 



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

 Mexico. A. panlculatus as to Bahamian references. Slender Pigweed. 



3. CENTROSTACHYS Wall, in Roxb. 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-celled. 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. 



