AMARANTACE^. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 305 



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

 lets usually contracted: bracts ovate-oblong, shortii/ animinate, nearly tf/ual . 

 utricle not rugose : seed nearly a line broad.— Vtuc. Am. At-.oil. xii. 27:). From 

 Mexico to N. Nevada and Iowa. Known on the plaiim as " liidhnL' " or 

 "Tumble Weed." 



* * Sejxils (5) of the fertile Jloiccrs more or less dilated altore and spreading, 

 distinct or united at base : flowers sometitnrs dita-ions: perianth dtriduuus 

 with the fruit. 



5. A. Torreyi, Benth. Bracts scarcely a.s long as the floworH: M-paU 

 obovate-spatulate, rounded above and entire or retu.se or emarginato ; Kcpab 

 of the male flowers (which are mingled with the pistilhite ones or on diMtiuct 

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

 Mexico, and southward. 



2. ACNIDA, L. Water-IIemp. 



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

 tipped sepals, longer than the bracts, and as many stanicn.s with oblong an- 

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

 with lanceolate awl-pointed bracts longer than the ovary: 8tigma.H 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, u?.uallv 

 crowded into elongated and pauicled interrupted spikes. 



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

 — Monfelia tamariscina, Gray. Low grounds and moist sandy ahorea from 

 Colorado to Vermont. 



3. CLADOTHRIX, Nutt. 



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

 oblong rigid-scarious sepals, somewhat pilo.se 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, dilTusely l)ranchod : 

 leaves round-obovate to rhomboidal, more or less attenuate at ba.se, often in 

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

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

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



4. FRCELICHIA, Manch. 



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

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

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

 sterile straj) slia])ed appendages. — Herbs witli spiked, .srarions-bracted flowers. 



l-F. Floridana, Moq. Koot annual: stem leafless al»t)ve, 1 to 2 foot 

 high: leaves lanceolate, silky-downy beneath : .^pikelets crowded into an in 

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



