73 



The first, or Two-coloured Amaranlhus, has the stem upright, 

 half a foot high, dark purple, smooth, streaked, and simple: the 

 leaves are blunt, wrinkled, waved, emarginale, mucronate, with a 

 short white point; the lower ones rufous liver-coloured on the upper 

 surface, bright purple on the lower, with elevated veins: the upper 

 ones green, with red tips: the petioles channelled, bright purple, 

 smooth, edged at top with the decreasing leaf: the lower ones nearly 

 the length of the leaves: the glotnerules subsessile, dark purple, on 

 a very short undivided peduncle: the calyxes five-leaved: the leaf- 

 lets oblong, purple, membranaceous, ending in a dark red point. 

 Professor Martyn observes that this species varies in the colour of 

 the leaves; as in the open air they are of a dirty purple on their 

 upper surface, and in the younger ones green; while in the stove the 

 whole plant is of a fine purple colour. It is, however, easily dis- 

 tinguished in all slates by its colour, its leaves, and the lateness of 

 its flowering, which is after all the others are past. It is a native 

 of Guiana and the East Indies. Mr. Miller remarks that it grows 

 to the same height with the Tricolor, and in the manner of its growth 

 greatly resembles it; but that the leaves have only two colours, an 

 obscure purple and a bright crimson, so blended as to set off each 

 other, making a fine appearance when the plants are vigorous. 



The second species, or Three-coloured Amaranthus, has the stem 

 a foot and half or two feet in height, obscurely angular, smooth, and 

 upright: the leaves blue with a red point, smooth, and waved: the 

 younger ones red with yellow tips: those in a more mature state 

 coralled at the base, violet in the middle, and green at the end: the 

 old ones green with a violet base: the petioles very long, smooth, 

 green, channelled, and bordered: the glomerules geminate, green, 

 axillary: the calyxes three-leaved: the leaflets oblong, acuminate, 

 membranaceous, with a green nerve. It varies in the colour of the 

 leaves, which are less painted in the open air than in the stove. It 

 has been long cultivated for the beauty of its vanegated leaves, in 

 which the colours are elegantly mixed. When the plant is in full 

 vigour these are large, and closely set from the bottom to the top of 



the stalk: the branches also form a sort of pyramid; so that there is 



L 



