Amarantus. 



AMARANTACEJE. 4 1 



form filaments and 2-celled anthers ; staminodia none. Stigmas 2 or 3, linear and 

 sessile. Utricle 1 -seeded, ovate, 2-3-beaked, circumscissile (or indehiscent in 

 Euxolus), often deciduous with the perianth. Annual weeds, with alternate 

 leaves decurrent upon the slender petiole and apiculate with a short setaceous 

 mucro ; flowers green or purplish, in axillary or spiked clusters or spikelets. Stam- 

 inate flowers usually mingled with the more numerous pistillate ones. Amblo- 

 gyne & Euxolus, Raf. Sarratia, Moquin. Menyea, Schauer. Scleropus, Schrad. 



A genus of wide range, some of the species very widely diffused as weeds about cultivated 

 grounds. Among the Indians of Arizona several are cultivated for their abundant seeds. The 

 specific differences are often obscure and badly defined, so that the number of actual species is very 

 uncertain. The views of Bentham (Fl. Australiensis, v. 212) are adopted respecting Amblogyne, 

 and there seems also to be no sufficient reason for retaining Mcngca as a distinct genus. 



* Sepals distinct, oblong-lanceolate, erect : flowers monoecious. 



*- flowers in naked terminal and axillary mostly panicled spikes : sepals 5 : 

 stems usually stout and erect, with large long-pet ioled leaves. EUAMAKANTUS. 



1. A. retroflexus, Linn. Dull green, 1 to 6 feet high, roughish and more or 

 less pubescent, simple or branched : leaves ovate or rhombic-ovate, acute or acumi- 

 nate, 1 to 3 (or often 4 to 6) inches long, not including the somewhat shorter petiole : 

 flowers green, in thick erect or scarcely spreading crowded axillary and terminal 

 spikes : bracts lanceolate, attenuate to a rigid awn, l to 3 lines long : sepals 1 to 

 1 J lines long, narrowly oblong, acute or obtuse, or mucronate, at length deciduous 

 with the base of the circumscissile utricle : seed line broad. Moquin, DC. Prodr. 

 xiii 2 . 258. 



From Mexico to British America, only as an introduced weed northward ; cultivated by the 

 Arizona Indians. It is also common through most of Europe, but probably not native. Dis- 

 tinguished by the thick erect spikes. 



2. A. chlorostachys, Willd. Spikes more slender than in the last, linear- 

 cylinclric, more or less flexuous, the lateral ones spreading or divaricate : whole 

 plant usually deeper green : the leaves ovate or rhombic-ovate, obtuse or acutish : 

 sepals more frequently acute or acuminate. Moquin, 1. c. 259. A. retroflexus, 

 var. chlorostachys, Gray, Manual, 412. 



Of like range and widely naturalized, but not yet certainly found in California. A . panicula- 

 tus, Linn., may also occur in gardens, with numerous slender panicled spikes, the flowers and 

 often the leaves tinged with purple. 



-t- +- Flowers in very small axillary spikes or clusters : sepals 1 to 3 : stems low 

 or prostrate, with smaller leaves. PYXIDIUM, Moquin. 



H- Sepals three. 



3. A. albus, Linn. Erect or ascending, \ to 2 feet high, diffusely branched 

 from the base, glabrous or nearly so : stem light-colored : leaves pale green, oblong- 

 spatulate to obovate, | to \\ inches long including the slender petiole, obtuse or 

 retuse, often undulate : rhachis of the 4 - 5-flowered spikelets often somewhat elon- 

 gated (\ to 3 lines long) : bracts subulate, rigid, pungently awned, 1 to 2| lines 

 long, the lateral ones very much smaller or wanting : sepals 3, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, shorter than the slightly rugose utricle : seed small, a third of a line 

 broad. Moquin, 1. c. 264 ; Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 274. 



Near Monterey (Hartwcg ; referred to A. Blitum, var. grcecizans, by Moquin, 1. c. 263), San 

 Diego (Palmer), and common through the interior, where it is doubtless indigenous, and in the 

 Atlantic States ; also naturalized throughout the Mediterranean region. 



4. A. blitoides, Watson. Much resembling the last, but prostrate or decumbent, 

 the slender stems * to 2 feet long : spikelets usually contracted : bracts ovate-ob- 

 long, shortly acuminate, nearly equal, 1 to 1* lines long, but little exceeding the 



