AMARANTACE^. (AMARAKTH FAMILY.) Ct3 



Ovary acute; style filiform, stigma obtuse. Fruit cylindrical-obconical — 

 Herbs with shrubby base. 



1. B. pUimbagiiica, Cav. 5 Dmseinat-el-Fdr. 1 or more; stems 

 lierbaceous, forked below. Leaves subcordatc, round, cuceate or trun- 

 cate at base, ovate, .02 to .05 long, entire or sinuate, the lower obtuse, 

 tlie upper acute. Peduncles axillary, longer than leaves, bearing a 

 terminal umbel, and often 1-2, sessile whorls; pedicels minutely 

 glandular, as long as ovary or shorter, or a little longer; perigonium 

 funnel-shaped, .01 long, limb .005 broad, white, hairy, thrice as long 

 as ovary; fruit club-shaped, .008 long, .003 in diameter, beset with 

 scattered, hemispherical, glabrous tubercles — Spring and summer. 



Var. g-labrata, Boiss. Green, glabrous or puberulent — Coast ; 

 Plain of Esdraelon and Nazareth ; Jordan Valley and Dead Sea, and 

 southward to Sinai 



Var. visco§a9 Boiss. Viscid-pubescent, pale green — Sinai. 



2. B. verticillata, Poir. If 1 or more, glabrous-glaucescent ; 

 stems loliite^ terete, much branched, forked. Leaves cordate-ovate, 

 often .05 long and broad, obtusely repand-sinuate. Peduncles axillary, 

 bearing 1-3, 3-5-flowered, rather distant whorls; pedicels capillary, 

 longer than flower; pcrigoniun .003 to .004 long, abruptly exjmndedinto 

 a camjmmdate-limi) ; fruit .004 long, appressed-setulose, striate, club- 

 shapecl, beset below with scattered, and toward tip with crowded, 

 glabrous, hemispherical tubercles — Spring — Ghor-es-Safieh, El- 

 ?Arabah and southward. 



3. M. i'epCHS, L. If Stems numerous from neck, diffuse, forked, 

 herbaceous. LesiYGS, OYato to oblong and liiiear-lanceolate, obtuse, sinuate- 

 repand. Peduncles axillary, capillary, /orwii?!^ a leafy2Kinicle oj Z-^-flower- 

 cd, Iiead-lil-e umbels ; perigonium .0015 to .002 long, nearly sessile, sliort- 

 camiKinulate ; fruit oblong-club-shaped, .003 long, 5-ribbed and sulcate, 

 glandular — Spring — Ghor-es-Safieh and Jericho. 



Order LXXXIL AMARAIVTACE.E. (amaranth family). 



Weedy herls or shruhs, with exstijndate leaves, and 2-3- 

 hracted, spiked or clustered flowers, loith a o-^-joartcd jperi- 

 gonium, iinhricafed in the hied, stamens (in ours) as many as 

 thelobes of the jMrigonitom, inserted opposite to them, a free, 

 1-celled, and (in ours) 1-seeded ovary, forming a membran- 

 ous utricle toith 1, crustaceous seed, or a crustaceous carijopsis 

 with 1, memhranous-coated seed, and a curved or ring-like 

 cmljryo enclosing the mealy albumen — Flowers clustered or 

 spiked, liermaplirodite or polygamons-mona3cious. Stamens 

 sometimes alternating with staminodes. Ovules on free 

 f imicles, arising from base of ovary, ascending or pendulous, 

 ampliitropous. LTtriclc indeliiscent or circumscissile, orcaryop- 

 sis indeliiscent. 



* Fruit a crustaceous caryopsis with 1, meinbranous- coated seed. 

 I, DIGEEA. 2f Leaves alternate. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals and stamens 5^ 

 Staminodeg 0. 



88 



