37 



dilate or opposite, sessile, subulate-linear, hairy, very numerous, 

 sometimes recurved ; spikes solitary, erect, short-peduncled, 

 ovate-cylindric, woolly : calyx twice the length of the bracts : 

 staminodes the length of the filaments : anthers ovate, yellow : 

 utricle oblong, very slender, whitish : seed somewhat oblong, 

 brownish-black : flowers rose-coloured. 



Peninsula. Tranquebar. Neilgherries. Flowering in the cold 

 season. 



GENUS XII. ACHrEANTHES. 



Pentandria monogynia. Sex .- Syst .- 



Deriv. From Adhwron, chaff, alluding to the nature of the 

 floral leaves. 



Gen. Chae. Flowers hermaphrodite, tribracteate : sepals 4 — 5, 

 somewhat unequal : stamens 5, rarely 4, connected at the base : 

 staminodes 5, smooth, or somewhat scaled, toothed at the apex, 

 seldom entire, sometimes on the back towards the apex produced 

 into an erect appendage either toothed or fimbriate : anthers 2- 

 ceUed : ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled : stigma simple, capitate : utricle, 

 ovate-oblong, l-seeded, enclosed in the calyx : seed vertical, sub- 

 cylindric, oblong : aril none. — Herbs or undershrubs, erect or 

 prbcumbent, rarely climbing : stem articulate : branches opposite, 

 subtrichotomous : leaves opposite : flowers arranged on narrow 

 spikes, rarely in hemispherical heads ; bracts subulate, very acute, 

 lower one persistent, lateral ones generally longer and spine- 

 scent. 



(1) A. ASPEEA. (Idmi.) 



Far. Indiea. 



Ident. Dec. prod. XIII. s. 2. p. 315.— Eoxb. flor. Ind. I. 

 p. 672. 



S^n. Amarantus spicatus, Fluk. — A. obtusifolia, Zam 



Engrav. "Wight's Icon. t. 1777.— Eheede Mai. X. t. 78. 



Speo. Chae. Stem suffruticose, erect, striated, pubescent : 

 branches spreading, somewhat 4-Bided, pubescent : leaves short- 

 petioled, obovate-rotund, abruptly attenuated at the base, very 

 obtuse, shortly acuminate, pubescent : spikes slenderly virgate, 

 acute : flowers purplish-green, shining, awn of the lateral bracts 

 about as long as the Umb: calyx about twice as long as the 

 bract : sepals obsoletely glabrous. 



Common everywhere. 



