108. AMARANTACE^. 



forming a minute involucre. Perianth with long or short tube and 

 funnel-shaped 5-lobed limb. Stamens 1-5, exserted. Ovary oblique, 

 stipitate, stigma peltate. Nut small glandular. Cotyledons broad, 

 thin, incumbent, enclosing a soft scanty albumen. 



Fls. sessile or subsessile in hearts. Leaves in the pairs unequal . . \. diffum. 

 Fls. in umbels with slender pedicels. Leaves equal in each pair . 2. repavda. 



1. B. diffusa, L. Syn. B. repens, L. Ohoic' arak', S. 



A rather succulent diffuse herb with rusty-puberulous stems and 

 broadly ovate leaves, usually whitish beneath, in unsymmetrical 

 pairs, the larger attaining 2" by 1'75". Flowers very small, rose- 

 coloured, sessile or nearly so in heads or small umbels on slender 

 peduncles from the leaf axils and in axillary and terminal panicles. 

 Perianth with limb plaited in bud, campanulate, tube constricted 

 above the ovary and glandular, lobes emarginate. Stamens 2-.3. 

 Fruit '\2" long, clavate, 5-ribbed, glandular. 



Very common in grassy waste places 1 Probably in all districts. Fl., Fr. r.s. 



Somewhat resembles Trianthema monogyna (to which it may be allied). L. with 

 obtuse or subcordate base, ajiparently green beneath in typical diffusa, white 

 beneath in forms repens and procumbens. The latter form is said to have glabrous 

 branches 2-3 ft. long with larger, broader, more rounded leaves and morepanicled 

 inflorescence than in repe>is which has branches 6-10" only, appressed-pubesceiit, 

 leaves small, ovate or oblong, often acute. 



Leaves eaten as a pot-herb, and the root given in diarrhoea, dysentery and 

 cholera, Campbell. Root laxative, diuretic and stomachic, Di(ft. 



2. B. repanda, Willd. 



A diffuse or subscandent herb with long pale glabrous (in our 

 specimens) or pubescent {F.B.I.) branches, and ovate repand or 

 lobed or sinuate, acute or acuminate leaves 1-2 -5" long. Flowers 

 pink, •3-*4" diam. with slender pedicels -S-'S" long in long-peduncled 

 axillary umbels mostly from one axil of the pair only. Fruit narrowly 

 clavate, •25-*3" long, ribbed, glandular. 



Monghyr, iZaw. ! Puri ! Khandpara State ! Fl.. Fr. Aug.-April. 



Leaves sometimes unequal in the pairs with rounded, truncate or subcordate 

 base. Petioles 'S-l'o". Peduncles slender, exceeding the leaves, 3-6-fld. Perianth- 

 tube •25--3o" long, only part round ovary swollen and with minute white hairs, 

 limb only 'l?" diam. according to F.B.I. Stamens far exserted. 



FAM. 108. AMARANTACEiE. 



Herbs, rarely shrubs or undershrubs with opposite or alternate 

 exstipulate simple and usually entire leaves. Flowers small, green 

 or coloured, of chaffy consistency, sometimes polygamous or 1 -sexual 

 and usually collected into dense heads or spikes, the outer in a cluster 

 or head sometimes imperfect and altered, heads or spikes often 

 panicled, bracts and 2 bracteoles nearly always present and chaffy 

 or scarious like the perianth. Tepals 5 persistent, imbricate in bud. 

 Stamens, 1-5 opposite the tepals, filaments free or connate below or 

 united with intervening membranous staminodes into a hypogynous 

 cup ; anthers 1-2-celled, pollen spherical with numerous pores. 

 Ovary superior, usually free, rarely fused with the perianth in fruit, 

 formed of 1-3, rarely more carpels but always 1 -celled. Styles 0-3, 



757 



