BASELLACEAE. 



119 



1. Boussingaultia baselloides 

 H.B.K. Madeira-vine. Bridal 

 Wreath. (Fig. 138.) A glabrous 

 vine climbing over other plants or 

 on walls. Leaves ovate, l'-3' long, 

 acute, entire, abruptly narrowed or 

 subcordate at the base, short- 

 petioled; racemes slender, simple 

 or compound, 2'-6' long; petals 

 greenish white, oval or elliptic- 

 oval, about 2" long, spreading dur- 

 ing anthesis. 



Thickets and walls, escaped 

 from cultivation and naturalized. 

 Native of South America. . Flowers 

 in summer and autumn. An attrac- 

 tive vine with many narrow racemes 

 of nearly white fragrant flowers. 



Basella rubra L., Red Basella, 

 of tropical Asia, recorded by Jones 

 as grown in Bermuda, is a vine, 

 similar to the Madeira Vine, but 

 with spicate, red or white, sessile 

 flowers, and the seeds have scarcely 

 any endosperm. [B. cordifolia 

 Lam.] 



Family 3. AMARANTHACEAE J. St. Hil. 



Amaranth Family. 



Herbs, some exotic genera low shrubs, with simple mostly entire thin 

 leaves. Flowers small, green or white, bracteolate, variously clustered, 

 usually in terminal spikes or axillary heads. Petals none. Calyx her- 

 baceous or membranous, 2-5-parted, the segments distinct, or united at the 

 base, equal, or the inner ones smaller. Stamens 1-5, mostly opposite the 

 calyx-segments, hypogynous; filaments distinct, united at the base, or into 

 a tube. Ovary 1-celle'd; ovule solitary in the following genera, amphitro- 

 pous (several in some tropical genera) ; stigmas 1-3. Fruit a utricle, 

 circumscissile, bursting irregularly, or indehiscent, 1-seeded in our genera. 

 Seed mostly smooth; embryo annular; endosperm mealy, usually copious. 

 About 40 genera and 475 species, widely distributed, most abundant in 

 warm regions. 



Utricle circumscissile ; anthers 2-celled. 

 Utricle indehiscent ; anthers 1-celled. 



1. Amaranthus. 



2. Achyranthcs. 



1. AMARANTHUS L. 



Annual branched erect or diffusely spreading glabrous or pubescent herbs, 

 with petioled pinnately veined leaves and small monoecious polygamous or 



