428 AMAKANTACE^. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 



elongated and interrupted; bracts long-airned ; fruit 2-^-cleft at the apex, 

 longer than the calyx. — Rarely spontaneous about gardens. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 



A. paniculXtus, L. Stem mostly pubescent ; leaves oblong-ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate ; spikes mimerons and slender, panicled, erect or S])vetii]mg; bracts 

 aicn-pointed ; flowers small, green tinged with red, or sometimes crimson ; fruit 

 2 - 3-tuothed at the apex, longer than the calyx. — Koadsides, etc. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 

 -t- H- Green Amaranths, Pigweed. Flowers green, rarely a little reddish. 



A. RETROFEExus, L. Roughish and more or less pubescent ; leaves dull 

 green, long-petioled, ovate or rhombic-ovate, undulate ; the thick spikes crowded 

 m a stiff or glomerate panicle ; bracts awn-pointed, rigid, exceeding the acute 

 or obtuse sepals. — Cultivated grounds, common ; indigenous southwestward. 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



A. CHLOROSTACHYS, Willd. Very similar, but smoother and deeper green, 

 with more slender, linear-cylindric, more or less flexuous spikes, the lateral ones 

 spreading or divaricate, and the sepals more frequently acute or acuminate. 

 (A. retrortexus, var. chlorostachys. Gray.) — Cultivated grounds; apparently 

 also iniligenous southwestward". — Var. hybridus, Watson, is similar, but 

 smooth and still more loosely panicled. (A. retroflexus, var. hybridus, Gray.) 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



* * Flowers crowded in close and small axillary clusters; stems loic, spreading 

 or ascending ; stamens and sepals 3, or the former only 2. 



1. A. albus, L. (TiTMBLE Weed.) Smooth, pale green ; stems whitish, 

 erect or ascending, diffusely branched ; leaves small, obovate and s])atulate- 

 oblong, very obtuse or retuse; flowers greenish; sepals acuminate, half the 

 length of the rugose fruit, much shorter than the sidndate rigid pungently 

 pointed bracts; seed small, |" broad. — Waste grounds, common. 



2. A. blitoides, Watson. Like the last, but prostrate or decumbent ; 

 spikelets usually contracted; bracts ovate-oblong, shordy acuminate; sepals 

 obtuse or acute; fruit not rugose; seed about \" broad. — From Minn, to Mo. 

 and Tex., and westward, and introduced eastward as far as western N. Y. 



A. Blitum, L., resembles tlie last, but is usually erect, with shorter and 

 more scarious bracts, and a smaller seed more notched at the hilum. — Near 

 N. Y. City and Boston. (Adv. from Eu.) 

 § 2. Utricle thinnish, bursting or imperfectly circumscissile ; flowers monacious. 



A. si'in6sus, L. (Thorny Amaranth.) Smooth, bushy-branched ; stem 

 reddish; leaves rhombic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, dull green, a pair of spines 

 in their axils; upper clusters sterile, forming long and slender spikes; the 

 fertile globular and mostly in the axils; flowers yellowish-green, small.— 

 Waste grounds, N. Y. to E!^ Kan., and southward. (Nat. from Trop. Amer.) 



§ .3. EtiXOLUS. Utricle rather fleshy, remaining closed or bursting irregularly .- 

 no spi7ies ; bracts inconspicuous. 



3. A. pumilus, Baf. Low or prostrate; leaves fleshy and obovate, 

 emarginate, strongly nerved; flower-clusters small and axillary; stamens and 

 se/^a/s 5, the latter half the length of the obscurely 5-ribbed fruit. — Sandy 

 beaches, B. I. to Va. 



A. CRfspcs, Braun. Verv slender, procumbent, pubescent; leaves small, 

 light green, rhombic-ovate to' -lanceolate, acute, the margin crisped and undu- 

 late; flowers in small axillarv clusters ; bracts and sepals scarious, oldanceo- 

 late, acute or obtuse ; utricle about as long, roughened, not nerved nor angled. 

 (A. viridis, J/ah.) — Streets of Albany, New York City and Brooklyn ; doubt- 

 less introduced, but the native habitat unknown. 



