42 AMAKANTACE^E. Amarantus. 



oblong obtuse and mucronulate or acute sepals : utricle not rugose, slightly longer 

 than the sepals : seed twice larger than in the last, nearly a line broad. Proc. 

 Am. Acad. xii. 273. 



Also found in the interior from Mexico to Northern Nevada and Iowa, and spreading thence 

 eastward. Somewhat resembling the A. Blitum, Linn., of the Old World, w-hich is usually erect, 

 with shorter and more scarious bracts and a smaller seed like that of A. albus, notched at the 

 hiluin. 



-I- -t- Sepals and bracts in the fertile flowers solitary. 



5. A. Californicus, Watson. Prostrate or ascending, glabrous, branching at the 

 base, the stems often a foot long or more, with numerous short branchlets : leaves 

 obovate to oblong, an inch long or less including the petiole, often small, obtuse or 

 acutish, with white veins and margin : flowers green or reddish, in numerous small 

 dense axillary clusters : bract often membranous and inconspicuous, lanceolate, 

 acuminate, slightly or not at all exceeding the utricle : sepals of the staminate 

 flowers | line long ; that of the fertile flower shorter and narrower, lateral : utricle 

 slightly rugose, tardily circumscissile : seed half a line broad. Mengea Californica, 

 Moquin in DC. Prodr. xiii 2 . 270 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 296. 



From San Diego (Palmer) to Monterey (Hartwey) ; near Carson City (Anderson, Torrey) ; and 

 northward in Idaho and Oregon. 



* * Sepals (5) of the fertile flowers more or less dilated above and spreading, 

 distinct or united at base : flowers sometimes dioscious : perianth deciduous 

 with the fruit. AMBLOGYNE. (Amblogyne, Raf., Gray. Sarratia, Moquin.) 



6. A. fimbriatus, Bentli. 1. c. Moncecious, erect, slender, 1 to 3 feet high, spar- 

 ingly branched or simple, glabrous : leaves linear, an inch or two long, attenuate 

 into a slender petiole, obtuse or acute, obscurely nerved : flowers in rather loose 

 clusters, scattered or approximate in a long terminal spike, which is leafy below : 

 bracts shorter than the perianth, narrow, acute : sepals of the sterile flowers obtuse, 

 oblong; those of the fertile flowers broadly fan-shaped, 1 to 1| lines long, with a 

 narrow thickened strongly nerved base, slightly united, the upper margin fimbriately 

 incised : seed round-ovate, less than half a line broad. Sarratia Berlandieri, var. 

 fimbriata, Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. 179. Amblogyne fimbriata, Gray, Proc. Am. 

 Acad. v. 168. 



From San Diego County eastward to S. Utah and the Rio Grande, and southward to Cape St. 

 Lucas, Xantus. 



7. A. Falmeri, Watson. Dioecious, rather stout, erect, 2 or 3 feet high, branch- 

 ing, somewhat pubescent above or glabrate : leaves oblong-rhomboid, an inch or two 

 long and about equalling the petiole, the upper linear-lanceolate : flowers in close 

 elongated linear spikes leafy at base : bracts solitary, mostly twice longer than the 

 flowers, spreading, subulate and rigid, narrowed into a stout awn : sepals of fertile 

 flowers 1 to 1J lines long, oblong and somewhat broader above, obtuse or retuse, 

 two or three usually slightly larger and more acute or setaceously apiculate, dis- 

 tinct or nearly so : stigmas usually 2 : seed circular, half a line broad. Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xii. 274. 



At Larkin's Station, east of San Diego, Palmer, 1875 (n. 823). Also on the banks of the Rio 

 Grande, Bcrlandier, 1834 (n. 2407). Staminate flowers have not been detected on the fruiting 

 specimens. What is probably to be considered the staminate form has been collected on the Rio 

 Grande and in the Gila Valley by several collectors, on the Fort Yuma road, 80 miles east of Sail 

 Diego (Palmer), and at Cape St. Lucas, Xantus. These accord in habit and foliage with the 

 pistillate specimens, and have very narrowly acuminate or setaceous pungent bracts equalling or 

 usually exceeding the lanceolate long-acuminate sepals. 



A. TORUEYI, Benth. (Ambloc/ifne Torreyi, Gray), is a similar species of Colorado and New 

 Mexico, and also from Cape St. Lucas, distinguished by the less rigid bracts scarcely as long as 

 the flowers and the broader obovate-spatulate sepals, rounded above and entire or retuse or emar- 

 ginate ; sepals of the male flowers (which are mingled with the pistillate ones or on distinct plants) 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute. 



