162 AMAKANTACE^- 



4. A. Crux-Mallse, Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. ii. 71. f. 16 (1863), 

 Annual, branched from the base, stout and succulent, 6 — 10 in. high, 

 sparingly pubescent and viscid : leaves ovate-oblong, 1 in. long, narrowed 

 to rather long petioles : peduncles shorter than the leaves : bracts 

 lanceolate-acuminate, united at base : fl. 7 — 9 lines long ; tube greenish; 

 limb rose-color, 4-lobed, the lobes deeply cleft : fr. 5 — 6 lines long, 

 pubescent, ccTarsely reticulate-pitted, the ovate body long-stipitate : 

 achene 2}^ lines long. — Deserts of western Nevada, but found near Reno, 

 Sonne, and to be expected within our State. May, Jiine, 



Obder XXIV. AMARANTACE/E. 



Robert Brown, Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandise, 413 (1810). Ania- 

 ranihi, Juss. Gen. 87 (1789). 



Herbs with simple exstipulate leaves, and small inconspicuoiis (mostly 

 greenish) axillary solitary or clustered perfect or imisexual flowers. 

 Calyx of 3 — 5 hypogynous more or less scarious persistent sepals, 

 occasionally with a pair of bractlets at base, generally enveloped by dry 

 and almost chaffy bracts. Corolla 0. Stamens usiaally 5 or more, distinct 

 or monadelphous. Stigmas 2 or 3, sessile on an undivided style. Fruit 

 utricular, sometimes circumscissile, or bursting irregularly. Seed small, 

 compressed, vertical. Embryo curved. 



1. AMARANTHS, Dodonxus. Annual weeds ; leaves alternate, 

 usually broad, veiny, and tipped with a short sharp mucro. Flowers 

 green or purplish, in axillary spiked clusters or spikelets, the stamiuate 

 usually mingled with the pistillate in the same cluster. Sepals distinct 

 or united at base, seldom less than 3 or more than 5, more or less scarious^ 

 erect, or the tips spreading. Stamens as many as the sepals, distinct. 

 Stigmas linear. Utricle ovate, 2 — 3-beaked, circumscissile or indehiscent 

 often deciduous with the perianth. 



* Sepals distinct, oblong-lanceolate, erect: Ji. monvecious. 



-)— Stout, erect; flower-clusters in naked, terminal and axillary spikes; 

 sepals 5. — Amarantus proper. 



1. A. RETROPLEXus, Liuu. Sp. PI. ii. 991 (1753). Stout, 1--4 ft. high, 

 paniculately branched above ; herbage dull green, roughish and more or 

 less pubescent : leaves ovate or rhombic-ovate, 1 — 4 in. long, on slender 

 petioles not so long : fi. green, in erect or somewhat spreading nearly 

 cylindrical spikes : bracts lanceolate-subulate, scarious except the green 

 carinate midrib, attenuate to a rigid awn, l)^ — 3 lines long : sepals 

 narrowly oblong, mostly acute or even mucronate, exceeding the utricle: 

 seed ^2 lins broad, black and shining, with a rather obtuse margin. — 

 Gardens and waste lands ; native of tropical America, 

 -i- H— Loir, diffuse or prostrate; sepals 1 — 3; fl. in small axillary clusters, 

 ■M- Sepals 3. — Genus Dimeianthus, Raf. 



