286 AMARANTH FAMILY. 



94. AMARANTACE^, AMAKANTH FAMILY. 



Weeds and some ornamental plants, chiefly herbs, essentially like 

 the foregoing family, but the flowers provided with dry and mostly 

 scarious crowded persistent bracts, and the fruit sometimes several- 

 seeded. The cultivated sorts are ornamental, like Immortelles, on 

 aecount of their colored dry bracts which do not wither.' 



§ 1. Leaves alternate, mostly long-petioled : anihers 2-celled. 



1. AMARANTUS. Flowers monoecious or polygamous, each with 3 bracts. 



Calyx of 5, or sometimes 3, equal erect sepals, smooth. Stamens 5, some- 

 times 2 or 3. Stigmas 2 or 3. Ovule solitary, on a stalk from the base of the 

 ovary. , Fruit an utricle, 2-3-pointed at apex, usually opening iill round 

 transversely, the upper part falling oif as a lid (Lessons, p. 130, fig. 298), 

 discharging the seed. Flowers in axillary or terminal spiked clusters. 



2. CELOSIA. Flowers perfect. Ovules and seeds numerous. Otherwise nearly 



as Amarantus, but the crowded spikes imbricated with shining colored 

 bracts. In cultivation the spikes are often changed ipto broa4 crests. 

 § 2. Leaves opposite : anthers l-cdled. 



3. GOMPHEENA. Flowers perfect, chiefly In terminal round heads, crowded 

 , with the firm colored bracts. Calyx 5-parted or of 5 sepals. Stamens 5, 



monadelphous below: filaments broad, 3-oleft at summit, the middle lobe 

 bearing a 1-celled anther (Lessons, p. 114, fig. 239). Utricle 1-seeded. 



Aehyr&nthes or Iresiae Versohaffifeltii is lately cult, for its red 

 foliage, a poor substitute for Coleus, except in shade, where it has clear red 

 stems, its ovate or routidish opposite leaves strongly veined or blotched with red, 

 or wholly crimson. 



Ireslne celosioldes, a wild tall vreed, with opposite leaves, and panicles 

 of small white-woolly flowers, is common S. W. 



Acnlda caun^bina, in salt-mai'shes, along the coast, is a tall annual, like 

 an Amaranth, but dioecious, bracts inconspicuouSj and the fleshy indehiscent 

 fruit 3 - 5-angled and crested. 



1. AMABiuNTUS, AMARANTH. (From Greek for unfading.) Coarse 

 weeds of cult, and waste grounds, and one or two cultivated for ornament : 

 fl. late summer. Bracts commonly awn-point«d. ® 



§ 1. Red Amakanths, thejlower-clustiri or the leaves tinged with red or purple. 



A. caudktUS, Princes' Feather. Cult, from India : tall, stout ; leaves 

 ovate, bright green ; spikes red, naked, long and slender, in a drooping panicle, 

 the terminal one forming a very long tail. 



A. hypochondrlacus. Cult, from Mexico, &c. : stout ; leaves oblong, 

 often reddish-tinged ; flower-clusters deep crimson-purple, short and thick, the 

 upper making an interrupted blunt spike. 



A. panicul&tus. Coarse weed, in gardens : the oblong-ovate or lance- 

 oblong leaves often blotched or veined with purple ; flowers in rather slender 

 purplish-tinged spikes collected in an erect terminal panicle. 



A. Iliellanch61icus, Love-lies-Bleeding. Cult, from China or India : 

 rather low ; stems and stalks red ; the ovate thin leaves dark purple or partly 

 green ; or, in var. tricolor, greenish with red or violet and yellow vaiiously 

 mixed ; sepals and stamens only 3, 



§ 2. Green Amaranths, or Pigweeds, flowers and leaves green or greenish. 



A. retrofl6xus, Common Pigweed : erect, roughish-;fiubescent or smooth- 

 er ; spikes crowded in a stiff panicle, the awn-pointed bracts rigid. 



A. spindsus. Thorny A. Waste ground, chiefly S. : dull green leaves 

 with a pair of spines in their axils ;" flowers small, yellowish-green, in round 

 axillary clusters and in a long terminal spike. 



A. albus. Roadsides and streets, spreading over the ground ; with obovate 

 and spatulate leaves, flowers all in small clusters in their axils and covered by 

 rigid sharp-pointed bracts ; sepals 3 ; stamens 2 or 3. 



