488 til. AMARAKTACEiE. 



Seed yellowish-brown. Fl. B. I. v. 4, p. 717 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 218 ; 

 Trim. Yl Ceyl. v. 3, p. 395 ; AVoodr. iu Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1S99) 

 p. 363 ; Prain, Beng. PL p. 8G8 ; Watt, Diet. Ecoii. Prod. v. 3, p. 112. 

 DesmocJiceta muricata, DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. (1813) p. 103; Wight, 

 Icon. t. 732 ; Grah. Cat. p. 168. — Plowers : Sept.-Nov. 



Common after the rains more or less throughout the Presidency. DEC(v^N : Wood- 

 row, Poona, Cooke [; Dhulia, JVoodrow\ Gujarat: JVoodroW. Sind : Woodmw. — 

 DiSTRiB. India (Bengal, N.W. Provinces, W. Peninsula) ; Cejlon, Afghanistan, Belu- 

 chistan, Arabia, N. Africa. 



4. AMARANTUS, Liun. 



Annuals. Leaves alternate. Flowers small, monoecious or polygamous, 

 in axillary clusters or dense terminal and axillary spikes or panicles ; 

 bracteoles 2. Male floweks : Perianth of 5 (rarely 1-3) membranous 

 ecjual or subequal ovate-lanceolate segments. Stamens 5 (rarely 1-3) ; 

 filaments free, subidate or filiform ; anthers 2-celled ; staminodes 0. 

 Female floweks; Perianth-segments oblong or spathulate, erect in 

 fruit. Ovary ovoid, compressed, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, subsessile, 

 erect ; styles 1-3 or 0. Fruit an orbicular or ovoid compressed utricle, 

 or a circumscissile membranoits or coriaceous capsule. Seed erect, 

 orbicular, couipressed ; testa crustaceous ; embryo annular, enclosing 

 floury albumen ; cotyledons linear ; radicle inferior. — Distuib. Tropical 

 and subtropical ; species undetermined, a large proportion known only 

 in cultivation. Several species are grown in the Bombay Presidency as 

 pot-herbs, and some of them make a very excellent spinach ; one species 

 is grown for its farinaceous seed. 



Stamens 5 ; sepals .5. 



Leaf-axils with s])ines 1. A. spivosus. 



Leaf-axils not spinous 2. A. paniculadis. 



Stamens o; sepals 3. 



Clusters of flowers axillary and in terminal spikes. 

 Fruit circumscissile. 



Stem brauching near the middle ; yielding only 



1 crop annually 3. A. gangeticus. 



Stem branching near the base ; yielding several 



crops annually A. gangeticus var. tristis. 



Fruit indehiscent. 



A low much-branched herb 4. A. viridis. 



A tall succulent herb 5. A. Blitum var. olcracea. 



Clusters of flowers all axillary ; a prostrate annual ; 

 fruit usually circumscissile, sometimes in- 

 dehiscent 6. A. poh/gamus. 



Stamens 2; sepals 2 7. A. teiiuij'olius. 



1. Amarantus spinosus, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) p. 991. An erect 

 glabrous herb 1-2 ft. high ; stems hard, often reddish, with many grooved 

 branches and with sharp divaricate spines, often exceeding \ iu. long, in 

 the leaf-axils. Leaves 1^-3 by ^-1^ in., ovate or lanceolate, obtuse, 

 spinoiis-apicidate, entire, glabrous above, sometimes scurfy beneath ; 

 main nerves numerous, slender, conspicuous below ; petioles .^-21 in. 

 long. Flowers very numerous, sessile, in deuse axillary clusters anH in 

 terminal and axillary dense or interrupted spikes ; bracteoles linear, 

 bristle-pointed, usually longer than tlie sepals. Perianth of male flowers 

 Jy-^ in. long ; sepals 5, ovate, acute, bristle-pointed. Perianth of 



