CLXXX. AMAEANTACEiB. 635 



farina of its seed, ■whicli is a substitute for that of the cereals. It is a native of North Asia, grows in the 

 poorest soil, requires little care in cultivation, ripens quickly, and is now extensively grown in the most 

 sterile countries of Europe ; it is also used for feeding fowls, and bees find a copious supply of 

 honey in its flowers. Another species of Buckwheat (P. tataricum) is cultivated with the preceding ; 

 it is hardier, and succeeds on high mountains, but its farina is slightly bitter. The leaves of certain 

 Polygonums yield a dye-atuiT; as P. tinctorium, cultivated from time immemorial in China for the 

 extraction of a blue dyeing substance identical with indigo; its cultivation was introduced into France 

 in 1834. Coccoloha uvifera, the Seaside Grape, is a West Indian and South American littoral shrub, 

 whose in^saated juice, called American Kino and False Rhatany, is a strong astringent. CalUgonum 

 Pallasia is a small leafless tree, growing in the sands of South Siberia, whose cooked root yields a 

 gum and mucilage, which the Kalmucks eat to stay their hunger ; they also appease their thirst with 

 , its young shoots and acidulous fruits. [Some Polygonums (as P. Hydropiper) are so acrid as to 

 blister the skin. Rurnex alpinus, or Monk's Rhubarb, a European species, was formerly in great 

 repute. P. soutatus is still much cultivated as a Sorrel. The leaves ^oi Oxyria reiiiformis area most 

 grateful acid. — Ed.] 



CLXXX. AMARANTACE^. 



(Amaranti, Jussieu. — Amarantoidb^, Verdenat. — Amaeantace^, Br.) 



Herbaceous or sufFruticose plants, sometimes frutescent, glabrous, pubescent or 

 woollj. Stem and beanohes often diffuse, cylindrie or sub-angular, continuous or 

 jointed, erect or ascending, sometimes twining [Kablitsia). Leaves opposite or 

 alternate, simple, sessile or shortly petioled, membranous or a little flesby, usually 

 entire ; stipules 0. Flowees small, regular or sub-regular, 5 or diclinous, sessile, 

 solitary or in glomerules heads or spikes,- the lateral ones sometimes arrested or 

 developed into crests, awns or hooked hairs ; bracts 3, rarely 2, usually contiguous, 

 the lowest largest, usually persistent, rarely leafy, the lateral very often keeled, 

 concave, never leafy, scarious, deciduous with the flower. Calyx of 3-5 sepals, or 

 very rarely 1 (Mengea), distinct or sometimes more or less coherent at the base, 

 equal or sub-equal, sub-scarious, glabrous or furnished with accrescent wool, 

 petaloid or greenish, persistent, Bestivation imbricate. Corolla 0. Stamens 

 hypogynous, 5 fertile, opposite to the sepals (rarely 3 or fewer), with or without 

 alternating staminodes> all free, or united below in a cup or tube ; filaments filiform, 

 subulate or dilated, sometimes 3-nd; staminodes entire or fringed, flat or rarely 

 concave, sometimes very small and tooth-shaped, or lobulate; anthers introrse, 

 1-2-celled, erect, ovoid or linear, dorsifixed, dehiscence longitudinal. Ovary free, 

 compressed, rarely depressed, 1-carpelled, 1-celled ; style terminal, simple, various in 

 length, sometimes obsolete ; stigma capitate, emarginate, 2-lobed or 2-3-fid ; ovules 

 1 or more, curved, basal, or suspended singly from separate erect funicles ; micropyle 

 inferior. Fruit usually enveloped in the calyx, sometimes a membranous 2- or 

 more-seeded utricle, or rupturing irregularly or circumsciss, or a caryopsis, rarely a 

 berry. Seeds usually somewhat compressed, reniform, vertical ; testa crustaceous, 



