382 AMARANTACEZ. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 
short: stigmas 2-3, slender. Utricle roundish, 1-seeded, indehiscent, included 
in the calyx. Seed vertical, lenticular. Radicle ascending. — Chiefly herbs, 
with opposite petioled leaves, and scarious glossy flowers, disposed in single or 
panicled spikes or heads. 
$ 1. PmiLoxEmus. Flowers perfect, crowded in axillary and terminal heads. 
1. I. vermicularis, Moquin. Smooth; stem much branched, prostrate 
or creeping ; leaves club-shaped, fleshy, semi-terete ; heads mostly sessile, ovate 
or globose, at length oblong or cylindrical, obtuse ; flowers white; sepals obtuse, 
longer than bracts, the two exterior ones woolly at the base. — Sandy sea-shores, 
South Florida.— Stems 1°-2° long. Leaves j'-1'long. Heads 3''-8" long, 
mostly terminal and solitary. fem d 
$ 2. IRESINASTRUM. Flowers diccious, disposed in loosely-panicled spikes. 
2. I. diffusa, H. & B. Stem erect, somewhat 5-angled, smooth; leaves 
petioled, ovate, acuminate, slightly denticulate-ciliate on the margin, smooth ; 
panicle narrowly pyramidal, much branched ; spikelets ovate, obtuse, straw-color; 
sepals 3-nerved, smooth, acute, twice as long as the ovate bracts; rachis slightly 
pubescent. (I. celosioides, E/].?) In Florida, Michaux. Saline marshes, South 
Carolina, Elliott. — Stem 2°-3° high. Leaves 14/-2/ long, the upper Ones 
lanceolate. Branches of the panicle alternate. 
8. ALTERNANTHERA, Mart. 
Flowers perfect or dicecious, 3-bracted. Sepals 5, smooth or villous. Sta 
mens 5, united into a short cup at the base. Sterile filaments minute, tooth-like: 
anthers I-celled. Style short: stigma capitate or 2-lobed. Utricle indehiscent, 
l-seeded. Seed vertical, lenticular. Radicle ascending. — Herbs. Leaves 0p- 
posite. 
* Flowers diccious : heads or spikes loosely panicled : stigma 2-lobed. 
1. A. flavescens, Moquin. Stem erect, smooth, furrowed, simple or spa™ 
ingly branched ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at each end, rough 
ish with short scattered hairs, short-petioled ; panicle oblong, the branches alter- 
nate, nearly leafless; spikes oblong, lengthening, straw-color; sepals of the, 
staminate flowers oblong, acute, nerveless, smooth, twice as long as the ovale 
persistent bracts; those of the pistillate flowers ovate, 3-nerved nearly to the 
apex; the pedicels clothed with long white wool. — Margins of fields, 
Florida. July-Sept. @ — Stem 29-39 high. Leaves 9!-4' long, the uppe™ 
most alternate and lanceolate. Panicle 8/-12! long. Sterile filaments tooti- 
* * Flowers perfect: heads mostly axillary, solitary or clustered : stigma capitate’. 
- stems prostrate. $ 
2. A. Achyrantha, R.Br.. Stems forking, pubescent ; leaves smoothish, 
oval or obovate, narrowed into a petiole ; heads dense, oval, white ; sepals ne oo 
.  Olhte,spine-pointed, woolly with barbed hairs on the back, the two inner ont — 
