:^0 CVI. AMARAXTACE.E (BAKER AND CLARKE). [Diyerci, 



times with many feeble hairs on the stems and leaves. Leaves alternate ; 

 blade 2 in. long, lanceolate or subovate, entire, cuneate at the base ; 

 petiole 1 in. long. Peduncles axillary, 1-3 in. long; spikes 1-4 in. 

 long, nearly continuous. Perianth J in. long; segments elliptic, 

 subacute. Style 2-3 times the length of the young ovary. Nut yV in. 

 in diam — Moquin in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 324 ; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 

 iv. 717 ; Zarb in Cat. Spec. Bot. Pfund, 33 ; T. Thorns, in Speke, Nile, 

 Append. G4G ; Oliver in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxix. 141, and ser. 2, Bot. 

 ii. 348; Dur. & Schinz, Etudes Fl. Congo, i. 232. D. alternifolia, 

 Aschers. in Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 180 ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 

 994; Schinz in Engl, ife Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. lA, 104, and 93, 

 fig. 46 G, in Bull, Herb. Boiss. iv. Append, ii. 164, in Engl. Pfl. Ost- 

 Afr. C. 172; not Achyranthes alternifolia, Linn. f. 



Wrile Xiand. Ethiopia, Kotschy, 119! Nubia: Suakin to Berber, ScJiwein- 

 furth, 444! Eritrea; Schweinf urth^ 11, 131, 225. Abyssinia: between Hawash 

 and Maki Rivers, Welhy ! Kordofan ; Kotschy, 114! 128!' Khartoum, Petherick ! 

 White Nile, Schweinfurth, 900 (or 906 ?) ! Nile, near El Damar, Grant ! Blue Nile, 

 Muriel, 77 ! British East Africa : Lake Riulol[)h. Welhy ! Lake Stephanie, 

 Donaldson Smith ! Baringo, 3400 ft., Johnston ! Tnita ; Maungii Mountain, 

 2000 ft., Johmton ! Tana River, Gregory ! near Mombasa, Johnston ! between 

 Mombasa and Witu, Whyte ! 



Soutb Central. Congo Free State ; Lisha, Hens^ 370 ; Lutete, Hens, 216. 



ItXozamb. Blst. German East Africa : Usambara ; Pangani, Volkens, 459 I 

 Mascheua, Hoist, 8718 ! 



Extends to India — a weed. 



5. AMARANTHUS, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 28. 



Flowers polygamo-dia3cious ; the central flower of a cluster often 

 perfect, the lateral reduced, sometimes male or obsolete, never spinescent. 

 Perianth of the perfect flower 5- or 3-tid, or ^)-fid with sometimes 2 

 smaller interior segments added (as shown by Schinz for one species). 

 Stamens 5, 3, or fewer ; filaments linear, nearly free, without interjected 

 rudiments; anthers 2-celled, shortly oblong; pollen small, globose, 

 irregidarly tubercled. Ovary ellipsoid ; ovule 1, on a basal funicle ; style 

 short, with 2-3 short linear branches. Fruit mostly membranous, more 

 or less definitely a pyxis, sometimes indehiscent ; seed globose, com- 

 pressed; embryo annular. — Annuals. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, 

 long-petioled, tip often obtuse or emarginate, nearly always glabrous ; 

 principal nerves parallel, straight, often conspicuous. Flowers in 

 clusters, arranged in dense heads or long (loose or dense) spikes ; bract 

 1 ; bracteoles 2, in many species overtopping the flower, in some species 

 shorter than it. 



Species 25 ; common weeds in all the warmer parts of the world ; the first two 

 species extensively cultivated as grain (the small abundant se<?ds). 



This genus has been subdivided on the character of the fruit, a pyxis or a berry ; 

 and on the character of the perianth, 5-fid or 3-fid. 



As to the fruit. — The pyxis in A. caudatus and A. tricolor is very thin, neatly 

 circumscissile, the seeds all scattered early. In A. viridis it is herbaceous, wrinkled. 



