AMAKANTACEJ3 



417 



to the placenta, about equal to the radicle in length ; radicle fili- 

 form or terete, curved round the periphery of the seed till it almost 

 meets the tips of the cotyledons at the base of the seed and close 

 to the hilum. 



Seedling (fig. 608). 



Radicle long, tapering downwards, slightly flexuose, with fibrous 

 lateral rootlets, pink or flesh-coloured, annual. 



Hypocotyl erect, terete, glabrous, deep red, 7-12 or 14 mm. long. 



Cotyledons linear-oblong, obtuse, entire, subcuspidate, glabrous, 

 one-nerved, petiolate, green and more or less suffused with red or 

 pink, especially along the 

 midrib ; lamina tapering into 

 the petiole, 6'5-10 mm. long, 

 2-5-3 mm. wide ; petiole flat 

 or slightly grooved above, 

 convex beneath ; 2-3 g o mm. 

 long. 



Stem herbaceous, annual, 

 erect, terete, or more or less 

 angled, or ridged and fur- 

 rowed, slightly hairy, red ; 

 1st internode 3-0-8'5 mm. 

 long ; 2nd 2 '5-7 mm. 



Leaves simple, entire, 

 cauline, alternate, exstipu- 

 late, petiolate, slightly hairy 

 and glandular on both sur- 

 faces when young, after- 

 wards glabrescent, alternately penninerved with the nerves incurved 

 towards their apex and uniting with one another by slender branches 

 only ; petioles semiterete, channelled above, and with the edges of 

 the lamina decurrent and forming a very slender wing on the 

 upper half, slightly hairy when young, especially on the upper 

 edges, decurrent on the stem and forming ridges. 



Nos. 1 and 2. Oval or elliptic, obtuse, entire or ernarginate, 

 green, or more or less stained with red. 



Nos. 3-6. Oval, emarginate, with a bristle-like mucro in the 

 notch, gradually larger, undulate at the margin when young, green 

 or more or less stained with red. 



Amarantus polygamus, L. 



Primary root long, stout, fleshy, tough, pink, with numerous 

 lateral rootlets. 



II. E E 



FIG. 608. Amarantus Jiypochondriacus. 

 Nat. size. 



