428 AMARANTACE^E. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 



elongated and interrupted; bracts long-awned ; fruit 2-3-clefl at the apex t 

 longer than the calyx. Rarely spontaneous about gardens. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 



A. PANIC ULATUS, L. Stem mostly pubescent ; leaves oblong-ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate ; spikes numerous and slender, panided, erect or spreading ; bracts 

 awn-pointed ; flowers small, green tinged with red, or sometimes crimson \fruit 

 2 - 3-toothed at the apex, longer than the calyx. Roadsides, etc. (Adv. from 

 Trop. Amer.) 



- *- GREEN AMARANTHS, PIGWEED. Flowers green, rarely a little reddish. 



A. RETROFLEXUS, L. Roughish and more or less pubescent ; leaves dull 

 green, long-petioled, ovate or rhombic-ovate, undulate ; the thick spikes crowded 

 in a stiff or glomerate panicle ; bracts awn-pointed, rigid, exceeding the acute 

 or obtuse sepals. Cultivated grounds, common ; indigenous southwestward. 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



A. CHLOROSTACHYS, Willd. Very similar, but smoother and deeper green, 

 with more slender, linear-cylindric, more or less flexuous spikes, the lateral ones 

 spreading or divaricate, and the sepals more frequently acute or acuminate. 

 (A. retroflexus, var. chlorostachys, Gray.) Cultivated grounds; apparently 

 also indigenous southwestward. Var. HYBRIDUS, Watson, is similar, but 

 smooth and still more loosely panicled. (A. retroflexus, var. hybridus, Gray.) 

 (Adv. from Trop. Amer.) 



* # Flowers crowded in close and small axillary clusters ; stems low, spreading 

 or ascending ; stamens and sepals 3, or the former only 2. 



1. A. albus, L. (TUMBLE WEED.) Smooth, pale green ; stems whitish, 

 erect or ascending, diffusely branched ; leaves small, obovate and spatulate- 

 oblong, very obtuse or retuse ; flowers greenish ; sepals acuminate, half the 

 length of the rugose fruit, much shorter than the subulate rigid pungently 

 pointed bracts ; seed small, J" broad. Waste grounds, common. 



2. A. blitoides, Watson. Like the last, but prostrate or decumbent; 

 spikelets usually contracted; bracts ovate-oblong, shortly acuminate; sepals 

 obtuse or acute; fruit not rugose; seed about 1" broad. From Minn, to Mo. 

 and Tex., and westward, and introduced eastward as far as western N. Y. 



A. BL^TUM, L., resembles the last, but is usually erect, with shorter and 

 more scarious bracts, and a smaller seed more notched at the hilum. Near 

 N. Y. City and Boston. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. Utricle thinnish, bursting or imperfectly circumscissile ; flowers monoecious. 



A. SPiN6sus, L. (THORNY AMARANTH.) Smooth, bushy-branched ; stem 

 reddish; leaves rhombic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, dull green, a pair of spines 

 in their axils ; upper clusters sterile, forming long and slender spikes ; the 

 fertile globular and mostly in the axils; flowers yellowish-green, small. 

 Waste grounds, N. Y. to E. Kan., and southward. (Nat. from Trop. Amer.) 



3. EtlXOLUS. Utricle rather fleshy, remaining closed or bursting irregularly ; 

 no spines ; bracts inconspicuous. 



3. A. ptimilus, Raf. Low or prostrate; leaves fleshy and obovate, 

 emarginate, strongly nerved ; flower-clusters small and axillary ; stamens and 

 sepals 5, the latter half the length of the obscurely 5-ribbed fruit. Sandy 

 beaches, R. I. to Va. 



A. CRfspcs, Braun. Very slender, procumbent, pubescent; leaves small, 

 light green, rhombic-ovate to -lanceolate, acute, the margin crisped and undu- 

 late; flowers in small axillary clusters ; bracts and sepals scarious, oblanceo- 

 late, acute or obtuse ; utricle about as long, roughened, not nerved nor angled. 

 (A. viridis, Man.) Streets of Albany, New York City and Brooklyn; doubt- 

 less introduced, but the native habitat unknown. 



