AMARANtACE^. (aMAKANTII FAMILY.) 41 I 



sessile axillarv flowers. (Name from sal, salt; in allusion to the alkaline salts 

 these plants t-oitioiisly contain.) 



1. S. Kali, L. (Cu.AiMON S.vLTWORT.) Annual, diffusely branching, 

 bushy, rough or snioothish ; leaves all alternate, awl-shaped, jirickly-jjointed ; 

 flowers single; calyx with the converging- lobes forming a sort of beak over the 

 fruit, the large rose or flesh-colored wings nearly orbicular and spreading. — 

 Sandy seashore : cpmmon. Aug. (Eu.) 



OuDER 80. AM.4BA]\TACEiE. (Amaranth Family.) 



Weedy herbs, with nearly the characters of the last familij, but thejloivers 

 mostly imbricated with dry and scarious persistent bracts ; these often colored, 

 commonly 3 in number; the one-celled ovary sonietiuies niany-ovuleJ. 

 (The greater part of the order tropical, but several have found their way 

 northward as weeds.) 



« Anthers 2celled : filaments sepamte. Ovule and seed solitary. 



1. Ainarantiis. Flowers monoecious or polygamous, all with a caly.x of 3 or 5 distinct 



erect sepals, not falling off with the fruit. 



2. Moiitelia. Flowers dioecious. Calyx none in fertile flowers. Utricle thin, circumcissile. 



3. Aciiida. Flowers dioecious. Fruit fleshy, indehisceut, 3- 5-angled. 



* * Anthers 1-celled. Ovule and seed solitary. 



4. Iresine. Caly.x of 5 sepals. Filaments united below into a cup. 



6. Froelicliia. Caly.x 5-cleft at the apex. Filaments united throughout into a tube. 



1. AMARANTUS, Toum. Am.vranth. 



Flowers moncccious or polygamous, 3-bracted. Calyx of 5, or sometimes 3, 

 equal erect sepals, glabrous. Stamens 5, rarely 2 or 3, separate : anthers 2- 

 celled. Stigmas 2 or 3. Fruit an ovoid 1 -seeded utricle, 2-3-beaked at the 

 apex, mostly longer than the calyx, opening transversely or sometimes bursting 

 irregularly. Embr3'0 coiled into a ring around the albumen. — Annual weeds, 

 of coarse aspect, Avith alternate and entire petioled leaves, and small green or 

 purplish flowers in axillary or terminal spiked clusters ; in late summer and 

 autumn. ('A/ia/jai/ros, unfiduig, because the dry calyx and bracts do not wither. 

 The Romans, like the Greeks, wrote Amarantus, which the early botanists in- 

 correctly altered to Amaranthus.) 



§ 1. Utricle thin, circumcissde, the top fall! ny away ax a lid: flowers polyyamous. 



* Flowers in taminal and axillary simple or mostly panirhd spikes: stem erect 



(1°- 6° high) : leaves iony-petloled : stamens and sepals 5. 



.— Red Ajt.\RANTiis. Flowers and often leaves tinged ivith crimson or purple. 



1. A. iiYPOCiiONDiuAcus, L. Smooth or smoothish ; leaves oblong-lanceo- 

 late, acute or pointed ; spikes very obtuse, thick, crowded, the terminal one elon- 

 gated and interrupted ; bracts longawned; fruit 2-3-cleft at the apex, longer than 

 the calyx. — Rarely spontaneous around gardens. (Virginia, ex L. ; but doubt- 

 less adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



2. A. pamcul.\tus, L. Stem mostly pubescent ; leaves oblong-ovatc or 

 ovate-lanceolate ; splices numn-ons and slender, panirled, erect or spreading ; bracts 

 awn-pointed ; fruit 2 -'Moot hed at the apex, longer than the calyx. — Flowers 



