AMARANTACEiE. (AMARANTH FAMILY.) 413 



2. MONTELIA, Moquin (under Acnida). , 



Flowers dioecious, 2 -3-bracted. Staminate flowers of 5 thin oblong and mu- 

 cronate-tipped sepals, longer than the bracts, and as many stamens with oblong 

 anthers; the cells of the latter united only at the middle. Pistillate flowers 

 without any calyx, their lanceolate awl-pointed bracts longer than the 1-ovuled 

 ovary : stigmas 2-4, very long, bristle-awl-shaped, plumose-hispid. Fruit a thin 

 and membranaceous globular utricle, smooth and even, opening transversely 

 around the middle ; the upper part falling off like a lid. Radicle of the annular 

 embryo inferior. — An annual glabrous herb, mostly tall, with lanceolate or ob- 

 long-ovate alternate leaves, on long petioles, and small clusters of greenish flow- 

 ers, usually crowded into elongated and panicled interrupted spikes. (Probably 

 a personal name.) 



1. M. tamariscina. (Amarantus tamariscinus, Nutt. A. altissimus & 

 Miamensis, Riddell. Acnida altissima, Michx. herb. A. rusocarpa, Moquin, &c.) 

 — Low grounds and moist sandy shores, Vermont to Wisconsin, Illinois, and 

 southward, especially westward. Aug., Sept. — Var. concatenata is a form 

 with the lower clusters in the fertile plant forming thickish distant heads (5" -6" 

 in diameter) in the axils of thp leaves ; the stems often low and spreading or 

 decumbent. — A very variable plant, as to inflorescence, height ( 1 ° - 6° high ), 

 the size and shape of the leaves (l'-5' long, the petioles often of the same 

 length), the bracts more or less awl-shaped, equalling or exceeding the fruit 

 (which is that of Amarantus) : but all are forms of one species. The sterile 

 plant is Acnida rusocarpa, Michx., or was mixed with it in Michaux's collec- 

 tion, but the fruit is neither obtuse-angled, rugose, nor indehiscent. That n&me 

 is unmeaning, perhaps a misprint of ruscorarpa. 



3. ACNIDA, L. Water-Hemp. 



Fruit a fleshy and indehiscent utricle, 3-5-angled, the angles often rugG^e or 

 tubercled-crested. Stigmas 3-5, shorter than the ovary, linear-awl-shaped. 

 Flowers in rather loose panicled spikes. Otherwise as in the preceding genus. 

 (Name formed of a privative and Kvidrj, a nettle.) 



I. A. cannabina, L. Annual, tall (2° -6° high); leaves elongated-lan- 

 ceolate or ovate-lanceolate, long-petioled ; fruit globular (l^"-2" long), much 

 exceeding the pointless bracts. — Salt marshes on the coast, Massachusetts to 

 Virginia and southward. Aug. -Oct. — Probably the only species; for A. 

 rusocarpa, Michx., is certainly to be divided between this and Montelia tamaris- 

 cina ; and A. tuberculata, Moquin, must be one or the other. 



4. I RE SINE, P.Browne. Iresine. 



Flowers mostly polygamous or dioecious, 3-bracted. Calyx of 5 sepals. Sta- 

 mens mostly 5 : filaments slender, united into a short cup at the base : anthers 

 1-celled, ovate. Fruit a globular utricle, not opening. — Herbs, with opposite 

 petioled leaves, and minute scarious- white flowers, crowded into clusters or spiked 

 and branching panicles ; the calyx, &c. often bearing long wool (whence the 

 name, from elpecriowr), a branch entwined with fillets of wool borne in proces- 

 sions at festivals.) 



