Alternanthera. | AMARANTACES. yas 
base into a membranous cup, with or without intervening stami- 
nodia; anthers 1-celled. Ovary orbicular or obovoid; style short 
or almost wanting; stigma capitellate or rarely 2-fid; ovule soli- 
tary, pendulous from an elongated basal funicle. Utricle com- 
pressed, ovoid or orbicular or obcordate ; margins often thickened 
or winged. Seed vertical, lenticular; testa coriaceous. 
A small genus of 16 or 18 species, mainly tropical or subtropical, most 
abundant in America. The New Zealand species is a common weed in warm 
countries. 
1. A. sessilis, &. Br. Prodr. 417.—A prostrate or decumbent 
herb. Stems numerous from the root, branched, creeping and 
rooting, sometimes ascending at the tips, 4-18in. long, glabrous or 
with 2 opposite pubescent lines. Leaves variable in size, $-3 in. 
long, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong or oblong-obovate, obtuse or 
acute, narrowed to the base, entire or obscurely denticulate, glabrous 
or pubescent in the axils. Flowers aggregated in dense axillary 
clusters +-1in. diam. minute, whitish, about ;,in. long. Perianth- 
segments glabrous, rigid, acute. Stamens 2-3. Utricle broadly 
obcordate, with broad corky wings.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 212; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 234. A. denticulata, R. Br. Prodr. 417; A. Cunn. 
Precur. n. 367; Raoul, Choiz, 43; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 249. 
Nort Isuanp: Marshy places from the North Cape southwards to Rotorua 
and Hawke’s Bay, rare and local to the south of Auckland. Sea-level to 
1000 ft. 
Orper LXIV. CHENOPODIACE. 
Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, usually succulent ana 
fleshy, sometimes covered with a mealy scurf. Leaves alternate or 
very rarely opposite, simple, sometimes wanting, exstipulate. 
Flowers small, regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, often dimor- 
phic, variously disposed but usually sessile and clustered, clusters 
often aggregated into dense or interrupted spikes or panicles. 
Bracts often wanting, when present herbaceous, not scarious. 
Perianth inferior, 3—5-lobed or -cleft, herbaceous, persistent, imbri- 
cate. Stamens 4-5, rarely fewer, hypogynous or perigynous ; fila- 
ments subulate or filiform; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 
1-celled ; style-branches 2-3, either free or united at the base; ovule 
solitary, basal or lateral, amphitropous. Fruit usually a utricle, 
rarely a berry, enclosed .in the persistent perianth, which is often 
enlarged or fleshy. Seed horizontal or vertical, testa crustaceous ; 
albumen present and farinaceous or wanting; embryo curved or 
annular or spiral. 
A widely spread order, found in all climates, but most plentiful in mari- 
time or saline localities. Genera 80; species between 500 and 600, often 
difficult of discrimination. The order includes the sugar-beet and mangold, 
two plants of great commercial importance ; also the garden-beet, the spinach, 
19—F. 
