40 POLYGONACE^E. Pterosteyia. 



diffusely dichotomous from the base : leaves opposite, the lower 2-lobed : bracts 

 opposite, small, foliaceous : involucres nearly sessile in the forks and terminal : 

 flowers very small, yellowish. Only the following species. 



1. P. drymarioides, Fisch. & Mey. Sparingly hirsute, decumbent, the sterns 

 often a foot or two long : lower leaves petioled, 2 to G lines broad, fan-shaped, the 

 lobes crenately toothed or again lobed ; upper leaves obovate to spatulate, entire or 

 toothed : bracts similar, about a line long : involucres very small, becoming 1 to 1| 

 lines long in fruit, somewhat 2-lobed, the margin toothed or laciniate ; the dorsal 

 sacs or crests more or less developed. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. ii. 23 ; Benth. in 

 DC. Prodr. xiv. 27 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 200. 



Hillsides and dry places, from the Columbia River to Lower California, and from the coast to 

 the foothills of the Sierra Nevada ; S. Utah (Parry) ; Guadalupe Island, Palmer. 



P. MACttOPTERA, Beiith. Bot. Sulph. 44, is described as a larger and stouter plant, with spatu- 

 late somewhat fleshy entire leaves, and the fruiting involucre half an inch broad with a sinuate 

 margin. Magdalena Bay, Lower California. 



ORDER LXXVIII. AMARANTACE.S3. 



Herbs (as to our species), with entire leaves destitute of stipules, small flowers 

 which are usually subtended by scarious bracts and have a persistent perianth of 

 1 to 5 more or less scarious sepals (wanting in Acnida), mostly hypogynous stamens 

 as many as the sepals and opposite them or fewer, a 1-celled ovary containing (in 

 our species) a single amphitropous ovule on a slender basal funiculus, utricular in 

 fruit, and lenticular seed with crustaceous (black or brown) testa and embryo 

 curved around copious mealy albumen, its radicle inferior and cotyledons incumbent. 

 Flowers perfect or unisexual, solitary or clustered, commonly 3-bracteate, viz. with 

 a bract and a pair of lateral bractlets ; the latter usually more scarious, concave and 

 often carinate. Sepals imbricate in the bud, unchanged in fruit. Stamens either 

 distinct or monadelphous at base, with or without alternating teeth or scales (stami- 

 nodia). Stigmas 2 or 3, sessile or on an undivided style. Utricle either indehis- 

 cent or irregularly bursting or circumscissile. Seed always vertical. 



An order of unimportant weedy plants, mostly tropical or subtropical, a few cultivated on 

 account of their ornamental bracts or foliage. There are about 40 genera and 400 species. 

 Readily distinguished from the Clwnopodiaccce by habit, and by the scarious bracts and sepals. 



* Anthers 2-celled. 



1. Amarantus. Annuals, with alternate thin strongly veined leaves. Flowers monoecious or 



dioecious, in close axillary or spicate clusters. Sepals 5 or fewer. Utricle circumscissile. 



2. Nitrophila. Perennial, with opposite fleshy leaves ; glabrous. Flowers perfect, axillary. 



Sepals 5 to 7, connivent. Utricle indehi scent. 



* * Anthers 1-celled : leaves opposite : tomentose. 



3. Cladotnrix. Flowers perfect, axillary. Utricle indehiscent. 



1. AMARANTUS, Tourn. AMARANTH. 



Flowers usually monoecious or polygamous, sometimes dioecious, 1-3- (mostly 3-) 

 bracted. Perianth of 3 or 5 sepals (rarely fewer in the fertile flowers), distinct or 

 united at base, scarious or scariously margined, erect or the summits spreading and 

 more or less dilated, glabrous. Stamens as many, distinct, with subulate or h'li 



