AMARANTACE&. 21 



Common in all parts of the area in waste places and as a weed of culti- 

 vation. DISTEIB.: Throughout India and in Ceylon and up to 4,000 

 ft. on the Himalaya, extending to all warm countries. 



OOMPHRENA GLOBOSA, Linn.; Eoxb. Fl. 2nd. ii, 63 ; F. B. I. iv, 732 ; 

 Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. PL 876 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 499. (The 

 Globe amaranth). A tall much-branched annual, hairy or subsilky. 

 Leaves shortly stalked, pale-green, 2-4 in. long, elliptic or obovate- 

 oblong. Heads large, globose, terminating the branches, yellowish- 

 white or crimson ; bracts leafy ; bracteoles pinkish-purple. Sepals 

 .densely woolly, shorter than the long staminal tube. Anthers 1- 

 celled. Stigma 2-fid. Much cultivated in Indian gardens and often 

 met with as ai> escape. Cultivated in most warm countries, having 

 probably originated in Ameiica. It flowers in India during the rainy 

 and cold seasons. 



XCL-CHENOPODIACE-aE. 



Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs. Leaves usually alternate, 

 simple, exstipulate. Flowers small, usually green, 1- or 2-sexual, 

 usually regular, often dimorphic ; bracts 1 or none, bracteoles 

 none or 2. Perianth simple, sepaline, of 3-5 free or connate sepals, 

 imbricate, often wanting in female flowers. Stamens usually 5, 

 opposite the perianth-segments, perigynous or hypogynous ; fila- 

 ments free, sometimes with intervening staminodes ; anthers 

 2-celled. Ovary ovoid globose or depressed, 1 -celled ; style ter- 

 minal, short or long ; stigma capitate or 2-3-lobed ; or stigmas 2- 

 5, free or/slightly united ; ovule solitary, basal or lateral, campylo- 

 tropous. Fruit a small utricle, rarely a circumscissile capsule, 

 enclosed in the often enlarged fleshy perianth when the latter is 

 present. Seeds erect, inverse or horizontal, crustaceous coriaceous 

 or membranous ; albumen floury or fleshy or none ; embryo 

 curved, annular or spiral. Species about 520, widely dispersed 

 throughout the world, and chiefly in saline soils. 



Stems not twining ; bracteoles free from the peri- 

 anth ; anthers erect or incurved in bud : 



Leaves flat ; embryo annular or horseshoe- 

 shaped : 



Fruiting perianth not winged ; albumen 

 copious . . . . . .1. CHENOPODITJM. 



Fruiting perianth with transverse wings ; 



albumen scant v ... .2. KOCHIA. 



