AMARANTACE^. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 673 



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

 Herbs with shrubby base. 



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

 herbaceous, forked below. Leaves subcordate, round, cuneate or trun- 

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

 the 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, .002 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. v!§co§a, 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; i^erigoniun .003 to .004 long, abruiythj expancledinto 

 a campanulate-limi) ; fruit .004 long, appressecl-setulose, striate, club- 

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

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

 1 Arabah and southward. 



3. B. repens, L. If Stems numerous from neck, diffuse, forked, 

 herbaceous. LesiYes ovixte to oblong a7id linear-lcmceolate, obtuse, sinuate- 

 repand. Peduncles axillary, csL-piUsiYy, forming a leafy panicle of i-5-Jiower- 

 ed, head-liJce umlels ; perigonium ,0015 to .002 long, nearly sessile, sJiort- 

 camptanulate ; fruit oblong-club-shaped, .003 long, 5-ribbed and sulcata, 

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



Order LXXXIL AMARAMTACE.E. (amaranth family). 



Weedy herbs or shrichs, with exstipulate leaves, and 2-3-^ 

 hracted, spiked or clicstered flowers, with a S'6-j)a7'ted peri- 

 gonium, iitibricated in the hud, stamens (in ours) as many as 

 the lobes of the perigonium, inserted opposite to them, a free, 

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

 ous utricle with 1, crustaceous seed, or a crustaceous caryopsis 

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

 embryo enclosing the mealy albicmen — Flowers clustered or 

 spiked, hermaphrodite or polygamons-monoecioas. Stamens 

 sometimes alternating with staminodes. Ovules on free 

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

 amphitropous. Utricle in dehiscent or circumscissile, or caryop- 

 sis indehiscent. 



* Vndt a crustaceous caryopsis with 1, nemlranous -coated seed. 

 1. DIGERA. 2f Leaves alternate. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals and stamens 5^ 

 Staminodes 0. 



88 



