'AMARANTACE^: 371 



AMARANTACE.E 



Examples : 



CELOSIA CRISTATA, L., many varieties of which, 

 with yellow, pink or red flowers, are grown under the 

 name of Cock's-comb in Indian gardens. 



It is an annual, with alternate, simple, exstipulate 

 leaves (which vary in shape). 



Flowers in short or long spikes, bracteate, and with 

 two small, lanceolate, acute bracteoles. Perianth of 

 five scarious, glistening, white (or coloured) sepals. 

 No petals. Stamens five, opposite to the sepals; fila- 

 ments united below into a cup, anthers two-celled. 

 Ovary one-celled, with a central style and small capitate 

 stigma. Capsule thin and scarious, opening by a 

 circular slit so that the upper half comes off. Seeds 

 many, on a central, basal, placenta; very smooth and 

 shining, black, with a curved embryo. 



CHARACTERS OF THE AMARANTACE.E 



The AMARANTACE^E are herbs with exstipulate leaves, 

 and may nearly always be recognized at once by the 

 small regular flowers, in wild plants usually greenish- 

 white in colour, in cultivated varieties red or yellow, 

 sometimes sterile and in dense masses, but always 

 scarious, glistening and hard. 



There are no petals, the perianth consisting only 

 of five scarious sepals. The stamens are five or fewer, 

 and stand opposite to the perianth lobes (which there- 

 fore are sepals), and are often connected at the bottom 

 by a membrane, or have intervening staminodes. The 

 ovary is one -celled (but not one carpelled for the 



