398 AMAKANTHACEAE 



11. GOMPHRENA L. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with stems mostly enlarged at the joints, and variously 

 pubescent foliage. Leaves opposite : blades entire, sessile or short-petioled. Flowers 

 perfect, usually in solitary and sessile clusters. Sepals 5, concave, mostly acute. Stamens 

 5, included or exserted : filaments united into a tube : anthers in the sinuses of notched or 

 cleft segments of the filament tube. Ovary 1-celled. Utricle more or less flattened. 

 GLOBE AMARANTH. 



Stigmas short, sessile or nearly so. 1. G. Nealleyi. 



Stigmas filiform : style manifest. 2. G. decumbens. 



1. Gomphrena Nealleyi Coult. & Fish. Perennial, villous. Stems erect or ascend- 

 ing, 1-3 dm. long, sparingly forked : leaf -blades oblong to oblong-spatulate, 2-3.5 cm. 

 long, mucronate, gjabrate above, half-clasping at the base : peduncle slender, often about 

 as long as the main stem : heads ovoid or cylindric-oblong to cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, 

 often rose-tinted, sessile, subtended by 2 leaf-like bracts : bracts of the head ovate, acute or 

 acuminate, 2.5-3 mm. long, about ^ as long as the keeled bractlets : sepals about 5 mm. 

 long, rigid at maturity, linear-lanceolate, densely woolly below, slightly surpassed by the 

 bractlets, somewhat united at the base : stigmas 2, sessile or nearly so. 



In sandy soil, Texas and adjacent Mexico. 



2. Gomphrena dectimbens Jacq. Perennial, woolly or villous-woolly. Stems 

 branched at the base, the branches procumbent, or ascending, 1-4 dm. long, more or less 

 branched : leaf-blades oblong to spatulate-oblong, 2-4 cm. long, acutish or obtuse and 

 mucronulate, entire, each narrowed into a petiole-like base which is partly clasping : pedun- 

 cles mostly simple : heads subglobose to globose-cylindric, 1-2 cm. long, pearly white or 

 rose, subtended by 2 leaf -like bracts : bracts of the head ovate, acuminate, about as long 

 as the narrower keeled and crested obtuse bractlets : sepals about as long as the bractlets, 

 1-nerved, the outer obtuse, glabrous, the interior villous, less obtuse : style slender. 



In sandy soil, southern Texas and Mexico, and throughout tropical America. 



12. LITHOPHILA Sw. 



Perennial, rather fleshy herbs, with prostrate or creeping branches. Leaves opposite : 

 blades narrow, entire, thickish, commonly sparingly pubescent at the base. Flowers per- 

 fect, in dense axillary or terminal sessile or peduncled heads. Calyx flattened. Sepals 5, 

 firm, obtuse. Stamens 5, included : filaments united into a short tube at the base. Stami- 

 nodia wanting. Anthers 1-celled. Ovary 1-celled, flattened : style very short : stigmas 

 subulate. Ovule solitary. Utricle broad, rather leathery, indehiscent. [Philoxerus K. Br. ] 



1. Lithophila vermicularis (L. ) Uline. Perennial, glabrous, somewhat fleshy. 

 Stems branched at the base, the branches spreading radially, prostrate, often creeping, 2-7 

 dm. long, more or less ascending at the tips : leaf-blades half-terete, linear or club-shaped, 

 1-2.5 cm. long, acute or acutish, entire, sessile : heads subglobose to cylindric, 1-2 cm. 

 long, sessile, silvery -white : bracts lanceolate, acute, glabrous : sepals surpassing the bracts, 

 usually 3.5-4 mm. long, flattened, obtuse, the 2 outer woolly at the base : stamens 5 : stami- 

 nodia wanting : utricle included. 



In sandy soil, Florida to Texas and in tropical America. 



13. IRBSINB K. Br. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with tall upright stems. Leaves opposite : blades thin, 

 pinnately nerved, entire, petioled. Flowers perfect, polygamous or dioecious, subtended 

 by 3 bracts, in terminal panicles. Sepals 5, glabrous, or those of the pistillate flowers 

 usually pubescent. Stamens 5 or fewer : filaments filiform, united at their bases : anthers 

 1-celled. Ovule solitary. Utricle subglobose, indehiscent. BLOOD-LEAF. JUBA'S BUSH. 



1. Iresine paniculata (L. ) Kuntze. Foliage glabrous. Stems erect, more or less 

 widely branched, 6-12 dm. tall, ridged or angled, commonly swollen at the nodes : leaf- 

 blades narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 5-10 cm. long, acute or acuminate at both ends, entire, 

 slender-petioled : panicles usually ample, rather narrow, nearly leafless at least above : 

 spikes white or nearly so : calyx glabrous and with 5 stamens in the case of staminate 

 flowers, woolly in the case of pistillate flowers : sepals 3-nerved.- 



In dry soil, Ohio to Florida and New Mexico. Also in tropical America. Summer and fall. 



