AMABANTACE.E. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 367 



9. SALSOLA, L. Saltwort. 



Flowers perfect, with 2 bractlets. Calyx 5-partcd, persistent and enclosing 

 the depressed fruit in its base; its divisions at length horizontally winged on the 

 back, the wings forming a broad and circular scarious border. Stamens mostly 

 5. Styles 2. Seed horizontal, without albumen, filled by the embryo, which is 

 coiled in a conical spiral (coehleate). — Herbs, or slightly shrubby branching 

 plants, of the sea-shore, with fleshy and rather terete or awl-shaped leaves, often 

 spiny-tipped, and sessile axillary flowers. (Name from sal, salt; in allusion to 

 the alkaline salts these plants copiously contain.) 



1. S. Kali, L. (Common Saltwort.) Annual, diffusely branching, 

 rough or smoothish ; leaves alternate, awl-shaped, prickly-pointed; flowers sin- 

 gle; calyx with the converging lobes forming a sort of beak over the fruit, the 

 large rose or flesh-colored wings nearly orbicular and spreading. — Sandy sea- 

 shore; common. August. — A very prickly bush-like plant. (Eu.) 



Beta vulgaris, the Beet, with its varieties, the Scarcity and Mangel Wurt- 

 zel, — and SpinAcia oleracea, the Spinach, — well-known esculent plants, 

 also belong to this family. 



Order 91. AMARANTACEJE. (Amaranth Familt.) 



Weedy herbs, loith nearly the characters of the last family, but the flowers 

 mostly imbricated with dry and scarious persistent bracts, often colored, com- 

 monly 3 in number; the one-celled ovary many-ovuled in one tribe. (The 

 greater part of the order tropical, but several have found their way north- 

 ward as weeds.) 



Synopsis. 



Tribe I. ACHYRAIVTHE^E. Anthers 2-eelled. Ovary 1-ovuled. Utricle 1-seeded. 



* Flowers monoecious or sometimes perfect. 



J. AMARANTUS. Calyx of 5 or 3 sepals, and 3-bracted. Fruit opening transversely (cir- 



cunieissile) ; the upper part falling away. 

 2. EUXOLUS. Calyx mostly of 3 sepals Fruit indehiscent or bursting irregularly. 

 * * Flowers dioecious : calyx none iu the fertile ilowers. 

 *3. MONTELIA. Fruit a thin and even utricle, opening transversely, as in No. 1. Stigmas 

 long, plumose-hairy. 

 4. ACNIDA. Fruit 3 -5-angled and flesh) , indehiscent. 



Tribe II. GOMPHRENE^E. Anthers 1-oelled. Ovary and fruit as in Tribe I. 

 6. IRESINE. Calyx of 5 sepals. Stamens united below into a cup. 

 6. FRCELICHIA. Calyx 5-cleft at the apex. Filaments united throughout into a tub*. 



1. AMARANTUS, Toum. Amaranth. 



Flowers monceciously polygamous, 3-bracted. Calyx of 5, or rarely 3, equal 

 erect sepals, glabrous. Stamens 5, rarely 3, separate : anthers 2-celled. Stig- 

 mas 2 or 3. Fruit an ovoid 1-seeded membranaceous utricle, 2-3-beaked at 

 the apex, mostly longer than the calyx, opening transversely all round, the 



