cxvi. AMARANTACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 729 



or woolly trichotomously branched angled and grooved, spikes cylindric on 

 opposite strict horizontal peduncles or branches glistening, sepals lanceolate 

 acuminate, utricle oblong, top circumsciss. Moq. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2, 

 305; Wall. Cat. 6912 ; Dalz. Sf Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 217. M. ? setacea, Mart. 

 1. c. ; Moq. 1. c. Achyrauthes Monsonia, Pers. Syn. i. 258 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. 

 i. 673, and Ed. Carey 6f Wall. ii. 499 ; Wight Ic. t. 725. A. setacea, Roth 

 Nov. Sp. 168. A. piingens, Lamk. Diet. i. 546. Celosia Monsonia, Retz. 

 Obs. ii. 13. Illecebrum Monsonium, Linn.f. Suppl. 161. 



BENGAL, Roxburgh. CENTRAL INDIA; Sumbulpore, Griffith. BURMA; at 

 Yenonglieum, Wallich. The CONCAN and DECCAN PENINSULA; abundant in dry 

 places. 



Branches many, prostrate or ascending from a very long flexuous woody tap-root, 

 1-3 ft., with numerous woolly nodes, and opposite or 3-nately whorled fascicles of 

 leaves and peduncled spikes or branches. Leaves \-\ in., exceedingly slender, 

 woolly. Spikes as long, with densely imbricating rose-coloured flowers, solitary or 

 subpanicled ; bracts many, lanceolate. Sepals 4, subulate-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 i\j in. long. Utricle enclosed in the large staminal cup ; stigma capitate, subsessile. 



DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 



JE. RADICANS, Mart. Seitr. Amarant. 83 (Moq. in DC. Prodr. xiii. 2, 302. 

 Achyranthes radicans, Heyne in Roth Nov. Sp* 170), is undetermined. 



JE. ? NERVOSA, Mart. I. c. (Moq. I. c. 306, Achyranthes nervosa, Eoth I. c.), and 

 A. PUBESCENS, Mart. I. c. (Moq. I. c., Achyranthes pubescens, Roth I. c. 171 ; 

 Illecebrum pubescens, Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. i. 271) are both indeterminable. 



14. STIIiBANTHUS, Hook. f. 



A climbing tree with pendulous branches. Leaves opposite. Flowers 

 large, white, shining, in panicled pubescent spikes. Sepals 5, hard and 

 scarious, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, acute, tips bearded at the back, outer 

 broader. Stamens 5, filaments shortly connate below, with long ligulate 

 lacerate staminodes ; anthers 2-celled. Ovary oblong, compressed, tip 

 penicillate; style filiform, stigma capitellate; ovule 1, pendulous from a 

 long basal funicle. Utricle oblong, top villous, indehiscent. Seed inverse, 

 testa coriaceous ; embryo annular. 



S. scandens, Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 1286. .ZErua scandens, 

 Gamble, Trees, <fu, of Darjeeling, not of Wallich. 



EASTERN BENGAL, Herb. Griffith. SIKKIM HIMALAYA, alt. 5-7000 ft., J. D. H. 



Trunk as thick as the thigh, " reaching the tops cf tall trees, which it covers with 

 masses of handsome flowers and soft whitish leaves." Gamble. Branches soft, 

 herbaceous, obtusely 4-angled, terminal silkily hairy, bases of internodes and of 

 petioles contracting when dry. Leaves 4-6 by 2-3 in., elliptic, acuminate at both 

 ends, finely pointed, sparsely pubescent above, villous or glabrate beneath ; petiole 

 -1 in., villous. Spikes 1-3 in. long, in terminal spreading trichotomously branched 

 panicles, sessile or peduncled, cyliudric; peduncles and pedicels villous. Flowers 

 spreading, \ in. long, white, shining; bracts short, ovate, apiculate ; bracteoles rather 

 longer. Sepals striate. Filaments very slender, hairy, shorter than the filiform 

 staminodes ; anthers oblong. The most gigantic Asiatic plant of the Order. 



15. ACHYRANTHES, Linn. 



Herbs. Leaves opposite. Flowers in slender simple or panicled spikes, 

 soon deflexed; bracts and bracteoles spinescent. Sepals 4-5, subulate- 

 lanceolate, aristate, shining, at length hardened and strongly ribbed. 

 Stamens 2-5, filaments connate at the base with as many square staminodes, 

 each of which is toothed or has a toothed scale at its back ; anthers 2-celled. 



