296 
BOTANY. 
Frem. Reii. 95 and 317, t, 3.) Erect, 3-6° high, diffusely ])ranched, more 
or less spinose and the rigid divaricate or spreading branchlets spinesceiit 
at the extremities; leaves 6-18" long and 1-2" wide, frequently much 
smaller and fascicled on the branchlets, scurfy-puberulent when young, be- 
coming glabrous; staminate aments 3-9" long, cylindrical or oblong, nearly 
1" in diameter ; anthers soon deciduous ; winged calyx of the mature fruit 
3-6" broad ; seed 1" in diameter, with a thin membranous transparent 
testa. — From the Upper Platte and Missouri Rivers to New Mexico and the 
Gila River, and west to California and Oregon. Frequent in the alkaline 
valleys of Nevada and Utah, and sometimes found in the lower canons of 
the mountains ; 4-6,000 feet altitude ; flowering from May to July, in fruit 
till October. (1,000.) 
AMARANTACEiE. 
Amarantus paniculatus, L. Collected at Unionville, Nevada ; doubt- 
less introduced. (1,001.) 
Amarantus retroflexus, L. Reported from ravines and about mar- 
mot burrows in New Mexico. Found near roadsides, but far from culti- 
vated fields, Malade Valley, Utah, and in canons in the Wahsatch ; proba- 
bly indigenous. (1,002.) 
Amarantus albus, L. Reported from the Upper Missouri, Northern 
Texas, and Menzies Island in the Columbia River. Truckee River bottom, 
and roadsides in the low valleys of Nevada and Utah. Midvein of the leaf 
terminating as usual in a short awn ; erect, the lower branches ascending ; 
^-2° high. (1,003.) With it was also found a wholly prostrate form, the 
stems 1-2° long ; leaves obovate or nearly orbicular. (1,004.) 
Mengea* Californica, Moq. DC. Prodr. 13. 2. 270. Erect, 1-14^ 
high, loosely branched ; leaves obovate or ovate, 5-12" long, attenuate into 
a petiole, very obtuse, mucronulate ; clusters much shorter than the petioles, 
lotropons. vertical, with a double integument ; embryo flat-spiral, green ; radicle inferior • albu- 
jii.Mi at the base, very small or none.— A spinescent shrub of alkaline soils, with alternate linear fleshv 
leuv.s. ' ^ 
Dr. Gri.vv sufigosts that the wing of the fruit may be the developed margin of the calyx, (as it was 
considered by Dr. Tonvy,) and the superior portion an enlargement of a hypogynous disk. Dissection 
fiivor> tliis view of its stnictiue, tbon^h differiug from the analogies of the order. 
> MI:\(;EA, Scfi vt-i-r. ri„wers monoecious, 1-bracted. Calyx of a single lateral erect glabrous 
s. ]);.!. Srainens l-->, witli eapillary filaments and 2-celled oblong-ovate anthers. Ovary 1-celled 1- 
uvi.lrd. style very sliort ; stigmas 2-3, filiform, divaricate. Fruit ntricnlar, subovate, without valve<^ 
naked. S,...d vertual. llattened-reniform, with crnstaeeous testa. Embryo annnlar, surrounding the 
mealy albumen ; radicle inferior.-Diffusely branched glabrous herbs ; leaves alternate ; flowers in\xil- 
lary sessile clusters, the staminate terminal and subsolitary ; bracts scale-like, slightly carinate nersist- 
ent. MoQUix, in DC, Prodr. ' '■ 
