428 AMARANTACE^. (AMARANTH FAMILY. ; 



elongated and interrupted; bracts Jong-awned ; fruit 2-3-clefl at t/ie apex^ 

 longer than the calyx. — Rarely spontaneous about gardens. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 



A. paniculXtus, L. Stem mostly pubescent ; leaves oblong-ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate; spikes tiumeroits and slender, ])anicled, QYQQt or spreading; bracts 

 aicn-pointed ; flowers small, green tinged with red, or sometimes crimson ; fruit 

 2 - 3-toot/ied at the apex, longer than the calyx. — Koadsides, etc. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 



-*- -(- Green Amaranths, Pigweed. Flowers green, rarely a little reddish. 



A. RETROFLEXus, L. Roughish and more or less pubescent ; leaves dull 

 green, long-petioled, ovate or rhombic-ovate, undulate ; the tliick spikes crowded 

 in a stiff or glomerate panicle ; bracts awn-pointed, rigid, exceeding the acute 

 or obtuse sepals. — Cultivated grounds, common ; indigenous soutlnvestward. 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



A. CHLOROSTACHYS, Willd. Very similar, but smoother and deeper green, 

 with more slender, linear-cylindric, more or less flexuous spikes, the lateral ones 

 spreading or divaricate, and the sepals more frequently acute or acuminate. 

 (A. retroflexus, var. chlorostachys, Gray) — Cultivated grounds; apparently 

 also indigenous southwestward. — Var. hybridus, Watson, is similar, but 

 smooth and still more loosely panicled. (A. retroflexus, var. hybridus, Graij.) 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



* * Flowers crowded in close and small axillary clusters; stems low, spreading 

 or ascending ; stamens and sepals 3, or the former only 2. 



1. A. albus, L. (Tumble AVeed.) Smooth, pale green ; steins whitish, 

 erect or ascending, diffusely branched ; leaves small, obovate and spatulate- 

 oblong, very obtuse or retuse ; flowers greenish ; sepals acuminate, half the 

 length of the rugose fruit, much shorter than the subulate rigid pungently 

 pointed bracts ; seed small, |" broad. — Waste grounds, common. 



2. A. blitoides, AYatson. Like the last, but })rostrate or decumbent ; 



spikelets usually contracted; bracts ovate-oblong, shortly acuminate; sepals 



obtuse or acute; fruit not rugose; seed about \" broad. — From Minn, to Mo. 



and Tex., and westward, and introduced eastward as far as western N. Y. 



A. Blitum, L., resembles the last, but is usually erect, with shorter and 

 more scarious bracts, and a smaller seed more notched at the hilum. — Near 

 N. Y. City and Boston. (Adv. from Eu.) 



§ 2. Utricle thinnish, bursting or imperfectl y circumscissile : flowers monacious. 



A. spin6sus, L. (Thorny Amaranth.) Smooth, bushy-branched ; stem 

 reddish; leaves rhombic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, dull green, a pair uf spine.^ 

 in their axils; upper clusters sterile, forming long and slender spikes; the 

 fertile globular and mostly in the axils; flowers yellowish-green, small. — 

 Waste grounds, N. Y. to E. Kan., and soutliward. (Xat. from Trop. Amer.) 



§ .3. EtrXOLUS. Utricle rather feshj, remaining closed or bursting irregularly , 

 no spines ; bracts inconspicuous. 



3. A. pumilus, Raf. Low or prostrate ; leaves fleshy and obovate, 

 emarginate, strongly nerved ; flower-clusters small and axillary ; stamens and 

 sepa/s 5, the latter half the length of the obscurely 5-ribbed fruit. — Sandy 

 beaches, R. I. to Va. 



A. CRispt's, Braun. Very slender, procumbent, pubescent ; leaves small, 

 light green, rhombic-ovate to-lanceolate, acute, the margin crisped and uiuln- 

 late; flowers in small axillary clusters; bracts and sepals scarious, ol)lanceo- 

 late, acute or obtuse : utricle about as long, roughened, not nerved nor angled. 

 (A. viridis, Man.) — Streets of Albany, New York City and Brooklyn; doubt- 

 less introduced, but the native habitat unknown. 



