THE AMARANTH AND THE BIRD's-NEST FAMILIES. 163 



7. Narrow-leayed Orache — [Atriplex angustifdlia.) 

 In similar situations, common. Fl. July. Annual. 

 E. B. XXV. 1774. 



In the "Flora Mancuniensis," p. 23 (1840), Chenopodium ficifolium is said to 

 grow " in cultivated fields about Chorlton, but not common." 



XXXIX.— AMARANTH FAMILY. AmarantacecB. 



Herbaceous plants, with simple, undivided, entire leaves, and minute 

 flowers, consisting of calyx only, but often so brightly-coloured, and 

 produced in such plenty, as to render the mass of the inflorescence 

 shewy, and even superb. They belong chiefly to the tropics, and in 

 the colder regions of the world exist only in cultivation. 



One species, the Elite, or Amardnthus Blitum, is semi -naturalized 

 in England, and among other places, foimd near Manchester ; an 

 insignificant weed, with procumbent stems, ovate and obtuse leaves, 

 and small lateral clusters of trimerous green flowers. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 As a weed in the garden at High Bank, Prestwich. (J. P.) Fl. 

 August, September. Annual. 



E. B. xxxi. 2212 ; Baxter, vi. 482. 



Green-houses are enriched by the splendid Cock's-comb, or Celosia cristdta, 

 and the Globe-Amaranth, or Gomphrena glohosa, with flowers resembling violet- 

 coloured strawberries, borne on the summits of tall, bare peduncles ; and gardens, 

 by the Love-hes-bleeding, or Amaranthus caudatus, its long green or blood-red 

 tails lasting till the end of autumn. Occasionally there are seen also the Prince's- 

 feather, or A. liypocliondriacus, resembling the former, but upright, and with 

 deep-red foliage ; and the A. tricolor, esteemed for its variegated leaves. 



XL.— THE BIRD'S-NEST FAMILY. Monotropdcece. 



A little family of herbaceous parasites, that is to say, plants that fix 

 themselves, either when they vegetate from the seed, or very soon 

 afterwards, upon the stems, branches, or roots of other plants of a 

 difierent kind, feeding upon their juices, instead of procuring nourish- 

 ment direct from the earth and atmosphere. There are several 



13 a 



