AMARANTHACE^— AMAEANTH TEIBE 87 



and on inland places. It bears in June and July a slender spike with very 

 conspicuous yellow anthers, on a stalk about four or five inches high. The 

 leaves vary much in size and degree of downiness. Though they have a 

 peculiar, and to us a very disagreeable flavour, yet they were formerly used 

 ill salads. 



2. Shore-weed (Li/torcUa). 



Plantain Shore-weed (L. lacustris). — Fertile flowers sessile ; barren 

 flowers on stalks ; leaves all from the root, linear, fleshy, somewhat channelled ; 

 perennial. This Shore-weed would remind us by its slender succulent leaves 

 of the sea-side plantain ; but, as its flowers develop themselves, we find them 

 very unlike those of that genus. The solitary barren flowers are raised each 

 on a stalk from two to four inches long ; thev are greenish-white, cup-shaped, 

 with very long stamens and generally erect. The fertile flowers are seated 

 among the leaves which surround the stalks of the taller flowers, and bear 

 long styles. The blossoms expand in June, and the leaves, which are all 

 from the root, are about two inches in length. The plant, though not 

 generally distributed, is locally abundant on moist sandy and stony places, 

 and is very plentiful on the margins of the Highland lakes, Avhere it forms 

 quite a turf. 



Snh-class IV. MONOCHLAMYDE^. 



Flowers with a single perianth ; that is, having a calyx or corolla or 

 neither, but never with more than one floral covering. In this sub-class it 

 is sometimes doubtful whether the leaves which inclose the stamen and pistils 

 should be called a calyx or a corolla : hence the word " perianth " is used to 

 denote either the sepals or petals, which inclose the organs of fructification. 



Order LXVIII. AMARANTHACE^E— AMARANTH TRIBE. 



Perianth 3 — 5-parted, chaft'y, not falling off; stamens 3 — 5, opposite to 

 the segments of the perianth ; ovary free, 1-celled ; style 1 or none ; stigma 

 simple or compound ; capsule membranaceous, 1-celled. This order, which 

 is closely allied in characters to the following, dift'ers from it in habit, lb 

 consists of herbs and rarely of shrubs, with leaves without stipules. Several 

 of the species are used as pot-herbs. 



Amaranth (Amardnthvs), — Pistils and stamens in separate flowers on 

 the same plant : perianth 3 — 5-parted ; stamens 3 — 5 ; styles 3 ; capsule 

 1-celled, l-seeded, bursting transversely. Xame from a, not, and maraino, 

 to fade, on account of the lasting nature of the flower of some of the species. 



Amaranth (A m ardnthus). 



Wild Amaranth {A. llitum). — Flowers 3-cleft with 3 stamens, in small 

 axillary clusters, the segments very obtuse ; leaves on long stalks, invei-sely 

 egg-shaped, narrowed at the base ; perianth as long as the bracts ; stem 

 diftuse, angled and furroAved ; annual. This plant is not truly wild, and 

 only half naturalized, being found occa.sionally on low vraste grounds about 



