274 



AMELANCHIER 



AMOMUM 



to elliptic-oblong, acute or rounded at the apex, cuneate 

 at the base, l%-2 in. long, sharply serrate to below the 

 middle or nearly to the base, glabrous when young: fls. 

 1-3, pedicels glabrous, J-l in. long; petals about %m. 

 long; top of ovary woolly: fr. purplish black, bloomy. 

 May; fr. in July and Aug. Swamps. Labrador to 

 Mich, and Minn., south in the mts. to Pa. G .F. 1 :247 

 (adapted in Fig. 188). 



A. CtMtcfcii, Fernald. Shrub, to 10 ft. : Ivs. suborbicular, about 1 J^ 



it ough 



A . utahSnsia, Koehne. Dwarf shrub with small obovate Ivs. scarcely 1 

 in. long, pubescent on both sides: racemes short, with very small fls. 

 Utah and Ariz. Not in cult. ; the plant cult, under this name belongs 

 to another species, to which could not be determined. 



ALFRED REHDER. 



AMELLUS (for the river Mella). Compdsitx. Nine 

 or 10 Cape of Good Hope annual and perennial herbs 

 allied to Aster. Lvs. hairy, oblong, opposite below: 

 heads solitary and terminal or lateral; fls. blue-rayed; 

 pappus single. A. Lychnitis, Linn., sometimes grown as 

 an evergreen glasshouse plant, has linear-lanceolate 

 hoary Ivs. and showy blue or violet fls. Summer 

 bloomer, a few inches high. 



AMHERSTIA (Countess Amherst and her daughter, 

 Lady Amherst, promoters of botany in India). Legu- 

 minosse. A monotypic genus comprising A. nobilis, 

 Wall., one of the noblest of flowering trees, native to 

 India, where it reaches a height of 40 ft. and more. 

 Fls. gaudy red, 8 in. long, with wide-spreading petals, 

 the upper ones gold-tipped, and colored petal-like 

 bracts, in long, hanging racemes: Ivs. pinnate, nearly 

 3 ft. long. The tree first flowered in Eng. in 1849. It 

 requires hothouse treatment. The fls. last only 2 or 3 

 days. Demands rich, loamy soil, and abundant moist- 

 ure during the growing season, after which the wood 

 must be ripened firm. Propagation is by seeds, more 

 often by cuttings of half-ripened wood under a glass, 

 with bottom heat of about 80. Thrives well in the 

 open in Jamaica. B.M. 4453. F.S. 5:513-516. 



N. TAYLOR.f 

 AMliNTHIUM: Zyaodmus. 



AMICIA (named for J. B. Amici, Italian physicist, 

 born 1786). Leguminhsx. Woody plants, one of which 

 is known in cultivation as a half-hardy greenhouse 

 subject, or in the open in warmer regions. 



Straggling pellucid-dotted shrubs, or sub-shrubs, 

 with alternate abruptly pinnate Ivs. and few Ifts. : fls. 

 rather large, papilionaceous, yellow, in axillary or termi- 

 nal racemes or rarely solitary; calyx with 2 very large 

 upper segms. and very small lateral segms.; stamens 

 equal: fr. very narrow, compressed, jointed. About 5 

 species in the mts. of Mex. to Bolivia. 



Zygomeris, DC. Eight feet, pubescent: Ifts. 2 pairs, 

 obcordate or wedge -shape, mucronate: fls. large, pale 

 yellow with purple on the keel: pod 2-jointed. Mex. 

 Intro, in S. Calif. ; unusual in greenhouses. L. JL, B. 



AMMOBIUM (Greek, living in sand). Compdsitse. 

 Hardy herb, cult, as an everlasting or immortelle. 



Florets perfect, yellow, surrounded by a dry, silvery 

 white involucre, and subtended by chaffy scales; 

 pappus of 2 bristles and 2 teeth. Two or 3 Australian 

 species. Commonly grown as an annual, but seeds are 

 sometimes sown in Sept., and the plant treated as a 

 biennial. Of easiest culture, the seeds being sown where 

 the plants are to grow. In the N., sow seeds in spring. 

 Cut the fls. before they are fully expanded, and hang 

 in a dry, shady place. They will then remain white. 



alatum, .R.. Br. Three ft. or less high, erect and 

 branchy, white-cottony, the branches broadly winged: 

 early root-lvs. ovate at the ends and long-tapering be- 

 low (javelin-shaped); st.-lvs. small and distant, entire 

 or nearly so: heads 1-2 in. across, the involucre becom- 

 ing pearly white, petal-like; fls. all tubular. V. 2:62. 



Austral. A large-headed form is var. grandifldrum, 

 Hort - L. II. B. 



AMMOCHARIS (ammos, sand; charts, beauty). 

 Amaryllidacex. Greenhouse bulb, cultivated for late 

 winter and spring bloom. 



Allied to Brunsvigia, but the perianth regular, the 

 tube cylindrical and straight, ovary flask-shaped and 

 narrowed to a neck. Two species in Cape of Good 

 Hope region (by some regarded as forms of one species) : 

 A. falcata, Herb., with limb 4 times length of tube, and 

 A. coranica, Burchell, B.R. 139:1219 (as Amaryllis), 

 with limb only twice as long. 



falcata, Herb. Bulb ovoid, sometimes 6-9 in. 

 diam., with brown tunics: Ivs. 1-2 ft. long, 1 in. wide, 

 strap-shaped, spreading, produced in spring before the 

 bloom: fls. 20-40, in an umbel, bright red, fragrant. 

 A. falcata requires rich, loamy soil. It starts to grow in 

 the spring. Give plenty of water during growing sea- 

 son in summer. It can be cult, out-of-doors. When 

 perfected and finished in autumn, the bulb may be put 

 under the greenhouse bench; keep moderately dry in 

 sand or earth; may be potted in January, after which 

 it will soon throw out its fine, fragrant blooms. 



L. H. B.f 



AMMONIACAL CARBONATE OF COPPER: Fungicide. 



AMM<3PHDLA (Greek, ammos, sand, and philein, 

 to love). Gramlnex. Perennial grasses, with long, 

 creeping rootstalks and spike-like panicles: spikelets 

 1-fld., awnless, the rachilla prolonged behind the palea 

 as a hairy bristle; lemma firm, about as long as the 



lumes, hair}' at the base; palea as long as lemma 

 pecies 1 or 2, on the sandy seacoast of Eu., the 

 Atlantic Coast of N. Amer. and the shores of the 

 Great Lakes. 



arenaria, Link (A. arundinacea, Host). BEACH- 

 GRASS. MARRAM-GRASS. SEA SAND-REED. PSAMMA. 

 One to 3 ft. : blades long, somewhat involute: panicle 

 pale, several in. or as much as a ft. long. Dept. Agric., 

 Div. Agrost. 7:167; 14:11. Sand-dunes along the 

 seacoast. On account of the long, hard, branching 

 rootstocks, it has been much used as a sand-binder in 

 Eu. and certain parts of Amer., especially Cape Cod 

 and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. 



A. S. HITCHCOCK. 



AMOMUM (Greek-made name, referring to the 

 qualities as antidote for poisons). Zingiberacex. Hot- 

 house ginger-like herbs with narrow entire leaves, 

 grown for the habit and foliage and for the flowers 

 in dense cone-like spikes. 



Amomums are aromatic tropical and subtropical 

 plants, spreading by means of hard rhizomes and form- 

 ing dense masses of handsome erect or spreading 

 annual sts. and linear, lanceolate or elliptic Ivs. : fls. in 

 dense cone-like spikes or racemes, half hidden in the 

 floral-bracts; calyx funnel-shaped, split down one side, 

 only slightly toothed; corolla- tube cylindrical, little 

 longer than the calyx, the upper lobe curved, the 2 

 lower spreading and narrow; lip (staminode) large 

 and petal-like, mostly obovate-cuneate; fertile stamen 

 with a narrow or a very slender filament: fr. ovoid, 

 with a thick and fleshy exterior. About 50 species in 

 tropics of Asia, Afr. and Pacific Isls., allied to Alpinia 

 and Elettaria. The "grains of paradise" are amomum 

 seeds, of several species, probably mostly of A. Granum- 

 Paradisii and A. Melegueta; they are used, or have been 

 used, for flavoring beverages. Cardamons (aromatic 

 tonic seeds) are secured from species of Amomum and 

 from Elettaria. 



Some of the amomums are extremely handsome as 

 foliage plants, apart from their flowers. Many of the 

 species have been confused with and included with the 

 genus Alpinia, but may be readily distinguished from 

 the flower-clusters, being borne on erect-solitary pe- 

 duncles arising from the base of the leafy stem or direct 



