484^ C'l. ILLECEBPACE^E. 



anthers didyinous. Ovary ovoid-lanceolate, attenuated into a filiform 

 cui'ved style with 3 minute stigmas ; ovule erect. Utricle enclosed in 

 the perianth, ohovoid. Seed obovoid, erect ; testa membranous, Avith a 

 large lateral chalaza ; embryo large, on one side of scanty albumen; 

 cotyledons oblong, plano-convex; radicle inferior. — DismiB. N. Africa 

 and Orient (chiefly W. India) ; species 2. 



]. Cometes surattensis, Bvrm. Fl. Ivd. (1708) p. 39, t. 15, 

 fig. 5. A low herb 4-10 in. high, much-branched from near the base, 

 woody below ; brandies numerous, erect, terete, pale, glabrous or the 

 young ones slightly pubescent. Leaves |-1 by -^1 in., elliptic, acute, 

 mucronate, glabrous, base acute, decurrent into a short often obscure 

 petiole Yjy-5 in. long. Flowers 3 together in heads |-| in. in diam. 

 (including the bracts), surrounded by numerous pinnatipartite feathery 

 yellowish-red bracts whose ultimate segments are needle-like, which 

 close and interlace over the fruit preventing the escape of the seed and 

 causing it to germinate in the bead. Stamens longer than the stami- 

 nodes. Fl. B. I. v. 4, p. 712; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 

 (1899) p. 363.— Mowers : Nov.-Jan. 



Rare ; in the Bombay Presidency confined to Sind. Sren : Sfoc/is, 500 ! ; Balzell, 

 72 ! ; bills at tbe Hub nenr KaracLi, Bltola Puran ! — Distrib. Belucliistan, Wazaristan, 

 and westwards to S. Arabia. 



The specific name of the plant is a misnomer as it is not found at Surat. 



Order CII. AMARANTACE^. 



Herbs (rarely shrubs), erect or with climbing branches. Leaves 

 opposite or alternate ; stipules 0. Plowers usually hermaphrodite 

 (rarely polygamous or dioecious), small, usually in terminal simple or 

 paniculate spikes, cymes or clusters (the outer flowers of a cluster 

 sometimes deformed); bracts hyaline or scarious, never leafy ; bracteoles 

 2, scarious. Perianth usually of 5 free or slightly connate hyaline or 

 scarious persistent sepals, imbricate in bud. Stamens 1-5, opposite the 

 sepals, usually included ; filaments usually connate below or united with 

 intervening membranous staminodes in a hypogynous cup ; anthers 1- or 

 2-celled. Ovary 1-celled, ovoid, ellipsoid or globose : ovules 1 or more, 

 amphitropous, erect or suspended from short or long free basal funicles ; 

 style sometimes simple or obsolete with capitellate or small sligma, 

 sometimes 2-3-fid with acute stigmas ; or styles 2 or 3 pa])illosely 

 stigmatic on the lower face, erect or recurved. Fruit a membranous 

 utricle, rarely a circumscissilely or irregularly rupturing capsule, veiy 

 rarely a berry, inclosed in or supported by the persistent perianth. 

 Seed inverted or erect, orbicular, ovate or reniform, compressed ; testa 

 crustaceous ; embryo horseshoe-shaped or annular, surrounding a floury 

 albumen. — Distrib. Genera 48 ; species about 500, tropical and sub- 

 tropical. 



Leaves alternate ; staminodes 0. 



Ovary 2-many-ovulate 1. Celosia. 



Ovary 1-ovulato. 

 Ovules erect. 



Flowers 2-sexual. 



Flowers capitate; fruit a circumscissile 



capsule; seed arillate 2. Ai.i.NtANiA. 



