AMARANTACE^E (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 427 



stamens. Bare mountain slopes of the White Mts., and in the Alleghanies 

 from Va. to Ga. ; also coast of Maine and near Newburyport, Mass. July. 



2. P. dich6toma, Nutt. Smooth, tufted ; stems (6 -12' high) ascending 

 from a rather woody base ; leaves (-J- - 1-J' long) and bracts narrowly awl-shaped ; 

 cymes open, man y -times forked ; sepals short-pointed; minute bristles in place 

 of petals. Rocks, Md. to N. C. and Tex. July - Sept. 



3. P. Jamesii, Torr. & Gray. Subcespitose, much branched from the 

 somewhat woody base, minutely puberulent ; leaves filiform-subulate, obtuse 

 or mucronate; forked cymes rather close; calyx narrow-campanulate with 

 turbinate base. Central Kan. to W. Neb., Col., and Tex. 



3. SCLERANTHUS, L. KNAWEL. 



Sepals 5, united below in an indurated cup, enclosing the utricle. Stamens 

 10 or 5. Styles 2, distinct. Homely little weeds, with awl-shaped leaves, 

 obscure greenish clustered flowers, and no stipules. (Name from (nchypos, 

 hard, and &t>6os, flower, from the hardened calyx-tube.) 



S. ANNUUS, L. Much branched, spreading (3 - 5' high) ; flowers sessile in 

 the forks; calyx-lobes scarcely margined. Waste places. (Nat. from Eu.) 



ORDER 86. AMARANTACE^E. (AMARANTH FAMILY ) 



Weedy herbs, with nearly the characters of the next family, but the flowers 

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

 commonly 3 in number ; the 1-celled ovary in our genera 1-ovuled. (The 

 greater part of the order tropical.) 



* Anthers 2-celled ; flowers unisexual ; leaves alternate. 



1. Amarantus. Flowers monoecious or polygamous, all with a calyx of 3 or 5 distinct 



erect sepals, not falling off with the fruit. 



2. Acnida. Flowers dio3cious. Calyx none in the fertile flowers. 



* * Anthers 1-celled; flowers perfect; leaves opposite. 



3. Iresine. Calyx of 5 sepals. Filaments united below into a cup. Flowers paniculate. 



4. Frcelichia. Calyx 5-cleft. Filaments united into a tube. Flowers spicate. 



1. AMARANTUS, Tourn. AMARANTH. 



Flowers monoecious 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 burst- 

 ing irregularly. Embryo coiled into a ring around the albumen. Annual 

 weeds, of coarse aspect, with alternate and entire petioled setosely tipped 

 leaves, and small green or purplish flowers in axillary or terminal spiked 

 clusters ; in late summer and autumn. ('Apdpavros, unfading, because the dry 

 calyx and bracts do not wither. The Romans, like the Greeks, wrote Ama- 

 rantus, which the early botanists incorrectly altered to Amaranthus.) 

 1 . Utricle thin, circumscissile, the top falling away as a lid ; flowers polygamous. 



* Flowers in terminal and axillary simple or mostly panicled spikes ; stem erect 

 (1-6 high)} leaves long-petioled ; stamens and sepals 5. 



* RED AMARANTHS. Flowers and often leaves tinged with crimson or purple. 



A. HYPOCHONDRIAC us, L. Glabrous ; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute or 

 pointed at both ends; spikes very obtuse, thick, crowded, the terminal one 

 19 



