120 



AMARANTHACEAE. 



dioecious green or purplish mostly 3-bracteolate flowers in dense terminal 

 spikes or axillary clusters. Calyx of 2-5 distinct sepals. Stamens 2-5 ; anthers 

 longitudinally dehiscent. Styles or stigmas 2 or 3. Fruit an ovoid or oblong 

 utricle, 2-3 -beaked by the persistent styles. Embryo annular. [Greek, unfad- 

 ing flower, from the dry, unwithering bracts.] About 50 species of wide 

 geographic distribution. Type species: Amaranthus caudatus L. 



1. Amaranthus hybridus L. Slen- 

 der Pigweed. (Fig. 139.) Eoughish- 

 pubescent; stem usually slender, erect, 

 l°-5° tall. Leaves ovate, or the upper 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, thin, 2'-6' 

 long; spikes linear-cylindric, axillary and 

 forming dense terminal panicles, ascend- 

 ing, somewhat spreading or drooping; 

 bracts subulate, twice as long as the 5 

 oblong acute or cuspidate sepals; stamens 

 5; utricle scarcely wrinkled. [A. cJilo- 

 rostacliys Willd.] 



A common weed In waste and culti- 

 vated grounds. Naturalized from tropical 

 America. Widely naturalized as a weed in 

 temperate North America. Flowers nearly 

 throughout the year. 



Amaranthus retroflexus L., Rough Pigweed, American, similar, but with 

 thick ovoid-cylindric flower spikes, is recorded as Bermudian by Reade, H. B. 

 Small and Moore. 



Amaranthus spinosus L., Spiny Amaranth, with a pair of stout spines in 

 each leaf axil, is recorded by Lefroy as a weed in cultivated ground, and by 

 Hemsley, as found among rubbish by Lane, but it has not been seen in Ber- 

 muda by subsequent collectors. 



Amaranthus gangeticus L., Love-lies-Bleeding, Asiatic, sometimes grown 

 for ornament in races with red or purple leaves, is l°-3° high with erect spikes 

 of glomerate flowers. [A. melanchoUcus L.] 



2. ACHYRANTHES L. 



Decumbent or prostrate herbs. Leaves opposite, entire or nearly so. 

 Flowers perfect, in sessile or peduncled head-like usually white or silvery spikes. 

 Sepals 5, unequal. Stamens 5, the filaments partially united into a cup-like 

 tube; staminodia surpassing the filaments and 1-celled anthers or shorter. 

 Ovary 1-celled; stigma capitate. Ovule solitary. Utricle flattened, indehiscent. 

 Seeds lenticular, smooth. [Greek, straw-flower.] About 100 species, of trop- 

 ical and subtropical distribution. Type species: Achyranthes repens L. 



