AMARANTACE^E. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 305 



4. A. blitoides, Watson. Like the last, but prostrate or decumbent : spike- 

 lets usually contracted : bracts ovate-oblong, shortly acuminate, nearly equal : 

 utricle not rugose : seed nearly a line broad. Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 273. From 

 Mexico to N. Nevada and Iowa. Known on the plains as "Rolling" or 

 "Tumble Weed." 



* * Sepals (5) of the fertile flowers more or less dilated above and spreading, 

 distinct or united at base : flowers sometimes dioecious : perianth deciduous 

 with the fruit. 



5. A. Torreyi, Benth. Bracts scarcely as long as the flowers: sepals 

 obovate-spatulate, rounded above and entire or retuse or emargiuate ; sepals 

 of the male flowers (which are mingled with the pistillate ones or on distinct 

 plants) oblong-lanceolate, acute. Amblogyne Torreyi, Gray. Colorado, New 

 Mexico, and southward. 



2. ACNIDA, L. WATER-HEMP. 



Flowers 2 to 3-bracted. Staminate flowers of 5 thin oblong and mucronate- 

 tipped sepals, longer than the bracts, and as many stamens with oblong an- 

 thers ; the cells of the latter united only at the middle. Pistillate flowers 

 with lanceolate awl-pointed bracts longer than the ovary : stigmas 2 to 5, 

 bristle-awl-shaped. Fruit (in ours) a thin and membranaceous utricle, smooth 

 and even. An annual glabrous herb, mostly tall, with lanceolate or oblong- 

 ovate leaves, on long petioles, and small clusters of greenish flowers, usually 

 crowded into elongated and panicled interrupted spikes. 



1. A. tubercillata, Moq. Stigmas very long, divergent, plumose-hispid. 

 Montelia tamariscina, Gray. Low grounds and moist sandy shores from 

 Colorado to Vermont. 



3. CLADOTHRIX, Nutt. 



Flowers 3-bracted ; bracts concave, hyaline. Perianth of 5 erect equal 

 oblong rigid-scarious sepals, somewhat pilose with verticillately branched hairs. 

 Anthers large, oblong. Utricle ovate-globose, indehiscent. Low annual, or 

 erect and woody at base, with small rounded entire petiolate leaves. 



1. C. lanuginosa, Nutt. Prostrate or ascending, diffusely branched: 

 leaves round-obovate to rhomboidal, more or less attenuate at base, often in 

 threes : flowers mostly in pairs : sepals twice longer than the broader hairy- 

 tipped bracts. Bot. Calif, ii. 43. Alternanthera (?) lanuginosa, Torr. From 

 S. California eastward through S. Colorado to Arkansas and Texas. 



4. FRCEIiICHIA, Momch. 



Flowers 3-bracted. Calyx tubular, 5-cleft at the summit, below 2 to 5- 

 crested lengthwise, or tubercled and indurated in fruit, enclosing the indehis- 

 cent thin utricle. Tube of filaments bearing 5 oblong anthers and as many 

 sterile strap-shaped appendages. Herbs with spiked, scarious-bracted flowers. 



1. P. Floridana, Moq. Root annual: stem leafless above, 1 to 2 feet 

 high : leaves lanceolate, silky-downy beneath : spikelets crowded into an in- 

 terrupted spike : calyx very woolly. Colorado and eastward to Illinois. 



