382 * AMAKANTACE^E. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 



short: Btigmas 2 - 3, slender. Utricle roundish, 1 -seeded, indehiscent, included 

 in the calyx. Seed vertical, lenticular. Radicle ascending. Chiefly herbs, 

 with opposite petioled leaves, and scarious glossy flowers, disposed in single or 

 panicled spikes or heads. 



1. PHILOXERUS. Flowers perfect, crowded in axillary and terminal heads. 



1. I. vermicularis, Moquin. Smooth; stem much branched, prostrate 

 or creeping; leaves club-shaped, fleshy, semi-terete ; heads mostly sessile, ovate 

 or globose, at length oblong or cylindrical, obtuse ; flowers white; sepals obtuse, 

 longer than bracts, the two exterior ones woolly at the base. Sandy sea-shores, 

 South Florida. Stems 1 - 2 long. Leaves ' - 1 ' long. Heads 3" - 8" long, 

 mostly terminal and solitary. 



2. IRESINASTRUM. Flowers diiecious, disposed in loosely -jianicled spikes. 



2. I. diffusa, H. & B. Stem erect, somewhat 5-angled, smooth ; leaves 

 petioled, ovate, acuminate, slightly denticulate-ciliate on the margin, smooth ; 

 panicle narrowly-pyramidal, much branched ; spikelets ovate, obtuse, straw-color ; 

 sepals 3-nerved, smooth, acute, twice as long as the ovate bracts ; rachis slightly 

 pubescent. (I. celosioides, Ell. ?) In Florida, j\fichaux. Saline marshes, South 

 Carolina, Elliott. Stem 2 -3 high. Leaves li'-2'long, the upper ones 

 lanceolate. Branches of the panicle alternate. 



8. ALTERNANTHERA, Mart. 



Flowers perfect or dioecious, 3-bracted. Sepals 5, smooth or villous. Sta- 

 mens 5, united into a short cup at the base. Sterile filaments minute, tooth-like : 

 anthers 1-celled. Style short : stigma capitate or 2-lobed. Utricle indehiscent, 

 1-seeded. Seed vertical, lenticular. Radicle ascending. Herbs. Leaves op- 

 posite. 



* Mowers diircious : heads or spikes loosely panicltd : slxjma 2-lobed. 



1 . A. flavescens, Moquin. Stem erect, smooth, furrowed, simple or spar- 

 ingly branched ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at each end, rough- 

 ish with short scattered hairs, short-petioled ; panicle oblong, the branches alter- 

 nate, nearly leafless ; spikes oblong, lengthening, straw-color ; sepals of the 

 staminate flowers oblong, acute, nerveless, smooth, twice as long as the ovate 

 persistent bracts ; those of the pistillate flowers ovate, 3-nerved nearly to the 

 apex ; the pedicels clothed with long white wool. Margins of fields. Middle 

 Florida. . July - Sept.. <J) Stem 2 - 3 high. Leaves 2' - 4' long, the upper- 

 most alternate and lanceolate. Panicle 8'- 12' long. Sterile filaments tooth- 

 like, minute. 



* * Flowers perfect : heads mostly axillary, solitary or clustered : stigma capitate : 

 stems prostrate. 



2. A. Achyrantha, R. Br. Stems forking, pubescent ; leaves smoothish, 

 oval or obovate, narrowed into a petiole ; heads dense, oval, white ; sepals lance- 

 olate, spine-pointed, woolly with barbed hairs on the back, the two inner ones 

 much smaller ; sterile filaments subulate from a dilated and obscurely denticulate 



