296 BOTANY. 



Frem. Rep. 95 and 317, t. 3.) Erect, 3-6° high, diffusely branched, more 

 or less spinose and the rigid divaricate or spreading branchlets spinescent 

 at the extremities; leaves 6-18" long and 1-2" wide, frequently much 

 smaller and fascicled on the branchlets, scurfy-puberulent when young, be- 

 coming glabrous ; staminate aments 3-9" long, cylindrical or oblong, nearly 

 2" in diameter ; anthers soon deciduous ; winged calyx of the mature fruit 

 3-6" broad ; seed 1" in diameter, with a thin membranous transparent 

 testa.— From the Upper Platte and Missouri Rivers to New Mexico and the 

 Gila River, and west to California and Oregon. Frequent in the alkaline 

 valleys of Nevada and Utah, and sometimes found in the lower canons of 

 the mountains ; 4-6,000 feet altitude ; flowering from May to July, in fruit 

 till October. (1,000.) 



AMARANTACE^. 



Amarantus paniculatus, L. Collected at Unionville, Nevada ; doubt- 

 less introduced. (1,001.) 



Amarantus retroflexus, \j. Reported from ravines and about mar- 

 mot burrows in New Mexico. Found near roadsides, but far from culti- 

 vated fields, Malade Valley, Utah, and in canons in the Wahsatch ; proba- 

 bly indigenous. (1,002.) 



Amarantus albus, L. Reported from the Upper Missouri, Northern 

 Texas, and Menzies Island in the Columbia River. Truckee River bottom, 

 and roadsides in the low valleys of Nevada and Utah. Midvein of the leaf 

 terminating as usual in a short awn ; erect, the lower branches ascending ; 

 ^-2° high. (1,003.) With it was also found a wholly prostrate form, the 

 stems 1-2° long; leaves obovate or nearly orbicular. (1,004.) 



Mengea^ Californica, Moq. DC. Prodr. 13. 2. 270. Erect, 1-14° 

 high, loosely branched ; leaves obovate or ovate, 5-12" long, attenuate into 

 a petiole, very obtuse, mucronulate ; clusters much shorter than the petioles, 



lotropous. Seed vertical, with a douljle integument ; embryo flat-spiral, green ; radicle inferior ; albu- 

 men at the base, very smaller none.— A spinescent sbrub of alkaline soils, -with alternate linear fleshy 

 leaves. 



Dr. Gray suggests that the -wing of the fruit may be the developed margin of the calyx, (as it was 

 considered by Dr. Torrey,) and the superior portion an enlargement of a hypogynous disk. Dissection 

 favors this view of its structure, though differing from the analogies of the order. 



1 MENGEA, SCHAUKR. Flowers moncecious, 1-bracted. Calyx of a single lateral erect glabrous 

 sepal. Stamens 1-2, with capillary filaments and 2-celled oblong-ovate anthers. Ovary 1-celled, 1- • 

 ovuled. Style very short ; stigmas 2-3, filiform, divaricate. Fruit utricular, subovate, without valves, 

 naked. Seed vertical, flattened-reniform, with crustaceous testa. Embryo annular, surrounding the 

 mealy albumen ; radicle inferior.— Diffusely branched glabrous herbs ; leaves alternate ; flowers in axil- 

 lary sessUe clusters, the staminate terminal and subsolitary ; bracts scale-like, slightly carinate, persist- 

 ent. MOQTJIN, in DO, Prodr, 



