]4 cv. iLLECEBRACE.i: (baker AND wrigiit). [Conietes. 



1. C. abyssinica. A'. Br. in Wall. PL Asiat. Ear. t 18. An erect 

 perennial herb. Stems ^-1 ft. long, pubescent, many times dicho- 

 tomously branched. Leaves sessile, spreading, lanceolate, opposite or 

 verticillate, the lower 1-1 ^ in. long. Clusters of flowers very numerous, 

 terminal on the branchlets ; bracts at first comparatively small, finally 

 overtopping the flowers, with many stramineous pungent divisions, so 

 that the heads look like a prickly ball about 1 in. in diam. Perianth 

 2 lin. long, green ; segments oblong, tipped with a spreading mucro 

 which becomes as long as the blade. Staminodes Ungulate, longer than 

 the fertile stamens. — Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 210. Saltia 

 abyssinica, R. Br. in Halt, Abyss. App. iv. 74. 



wile Xiand. Nubia : Soturba Mountains, Schweinfurth, 762! sea-coast to 

 between 3000 and 4000 ft., Bent ! Hor Tanianib, Lord ! Sudan : Khor Asbat, 

 Broun, 1213 ! Eritrea: neai Mai Mafales, in Denibebis, Schweinfurth, 210! Mount 

 A;laita, near Saati, Schweinfurth (^ Eiva, 560! Mount Ketambal, Ehrenberg ! 

 Abyssinia : Begemeder, Schimper, 97, Sonialiland, Miss Hdith Cole ! Mrs. Lort 

 Phillips ! 



Also in Arabia and tbe Comoro Islands. 



T bave not seen tbe doubtful plant su]>posed to be allied to Comeies, collected by 

 Major Serpa Pinto, 04, in Soutb Central Africa, and described by Mr. Hiern in 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Boi. ii. 25. 



Ordek CVI. AMARANTACE-ffi. (By J. G. Baker and 

 C. B. Clarke.) 



Flowers 2- (rarely 1-) sexual, many rudimentary or obsolete, 

 monochlamydeous, chafly or scarious. Perianth-segments united near 

 the base, 5, much imbricated, in a few species 4 or o only. Stamens 

 hypogynous, 5 (rarely 4-^^), opposite the perianth-segments ; filaments 

 united at the base into a scarious (sometimes very short) tube ; fila- 

 ments linear to the base with processes (staminodes) on the tube 

 alternating with them, sometimes the filaments wuder at the base and 

 uniting by an acute sinus into a longer cup-like tube without any 

 staminodes; the processes resemble filaments or are oblong, often 

 fimbriate, or small or nearly obsolete. Anther-cells 2 (in the last 

 4 genera 1), oblong, with a longitudinal slit ; pollen very small, 

 globose. Ovary superior, 1 -celled ; style short or long ; stigma capitate 

 or shortly 2-tI-fid ; ovules on basal funicles, 1 only (except in the first 

 ;3 genera). Fruit a membranous utricle (rarely a berry), irregularly 

 breaking up or circumscissile. Seed globose, compressed or ellipsoid ; 

 testa crustaceous, smooth or nearly so ; embryo annular round copious 

 endosperm. ^Herbs or undershrubs, or {Sericostachys) large climbers. 

 Leaves simple, entire, opposite or alternate. Flowers in spikes, heads 

 or rarely racemes ; perfect flower often solitary, supported by 1 bract 

 and 2 bracteoles ; not rarely the solitary perfect flower is supported by 

 2 (less often 1) rudimentary flowers (within the bract); in some 

 genera 2-3 perfect flowers (with their extra '' bracteoles," rudimentaiy 

 flowers) are clustered inside one bract. Flowers small or minute. 



