Order 94. Amarantaceoe. 269 



8. ALTERI^ANTHERA. 



A. sessilis. A common-looking creeping plant, nearly 

 smooth, stems jointed, leaves ovate lanceolate or obovate, 

 flowers in short conical or roundish spikes, white or pinkish. 

 Kdnchari. 



Poona. A common weed (D.). MahableshwartDr. Cooke). Through- 

 out hotter India and Ceylon in damp places (H.). 



The leaves are certainly not always sessile. R. called the plant 

 Achyranthes triandra. 



Cyathula, flowers in clusters much as in Pupalia, stamens 5, united 

 below with the staminodes into a cup. * C. prostrata, stem creeping, 

 leaves oborate rhomboid, flowers bluish, in small clusters on very 

 slender spikes, the awns hooked, 10 to 20 together, yellowish. Deccan 

 peninsula (H.). 



Psilostachys, slender herbs with minute flowers all perfect, stamens 

 5, free. * P. sericea (Psilotrichum s., D.). A very beautiful erect 

 plant, leaves broad ovate, silky, flowers in spikes at the tips of the 

 branches, outer sepals deeply ribbed, silky. Coast of Kattywar (D.). 



Gomphrena globosa, globe amaranth, jdfiri gundi is very common in 

 native gardens, having large round heads of red flowers with two 

 leafy bracts. " Cultivated in all countries, probably originating in 

 America" (T.). 



ORDEE 95. CHENOPODIACE-ffi. The Goosefoot Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, mostly succulent, with small and incon- 

 spicuous flowers, generally green; leaves simple, alternate, 

 without stipules, perianth of 3 to 5 sepals, united at the base, 

 stamens usually 5, opposite the sepals, anthers 2-eelled, ovary 

 superior, stigmas 2 to 4, fruit a one-seeded achene, enclosed in 

 the perianth, which is then often enlarged or fleshy. 



This, like the last, is an unattractive order, but useful from many 

 of its species being used as pot-herbs. Most of the order occur as 

 weeds on the seashore or in saline desert regions, and very many 

 species are tinged with red. The flowers are generally without the 

 stiff dry bracts which distinguish the last order, and the leaves with- 

 out the stipules which mark the next. 



1. CHENOPODIUM. Stem angled, flowers minute, in axillary 

 clusters. 



2. ATRIPLEX. Flowers mostly unisexual, sepals of male 

 flowers 5, of female none, but in their place 2 bracts, which 

 unite and form a cover for the fruit, stigmas 2. 



3. ARTHROCNEMUM. Fleshy and leafless, with jointed stems, 

 flowers minute, 2 or 3 together in the joints of the short spikes 

 perianth undivided, stamen one. 



