AMARAXTACE.E 415 



AMARAXTACE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. iii. 20. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is superior, ovoid, ellipsoid, or 

 globose and frequently compressed, one-celled and mem- 

 branous, rarely coriaceous or fleshy. The ovule is fleshy, 

 solitary except in the tribe Celosie where there are two or 

 many, erect or pendulous from a basal funicle and amphi- 

 tropous. The fruit is a membranous utricle, rarely fleshy, and 

 bursts irregularly or circumscissly. The seed is erect or inverted 

 and suspended from a long funicle, lenticular, oblong or reni- 

 form-orbicular and mostly compressed laterally. An aril is 

 sometimes though rarely present. The testa is crustaceous or 

 coriaceous, frequently black or brown or shining. The endo- 

 sperm is copious, farinaceous and often adheres to the inner 

 and membranous coat of the seed. The embryo is slender 

 and curved round the periphery of the seed with incumbent 

 cotyledons and an elongated superior or inferior radicle. In 

 some cases the cotyledons are broad, thin, concave, and un- 

 equal, the larger one folding over the smaller. 



An exceptional case occurs in Digera where the fruit is 

 nutlike. A good type of the Order is represented by Amar- 

 antus hypochondriacus (fig. 607) which has a lenticular 

 broadly elliptic or suborbicular seed with a peripheral circinate 

 embryo. The cotyledons are linear, plano-convex, of the same 

 length as the radicle, but slightly wider, and they lie across the 

 narrow plane of the seed. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons vary between linear and lanceo- 

 late, and are often tinged or coloured red, pink, or violet, a 

 peculiarity which is also characteristic of the leaves of many 

 species in this Order. Those of Amarantus hypochondriacus 

 (fig. 608) are linear-oblong, subcuspidate, one-nerved and petio- 

 late as in other species. 



The cotyledons of A. polygamus are slightly broader, 

 lanceolate-oblong, and obtuse. The first two leaves are 

 roundly ovate, emarginate at the base, and followed by four 

 others which are larger and tend to be cordate at the base. 



