AMAEANXn FAMILY. 



277 



©vate or rhombic-ovate, undulate. Spikes crowded in a stiff panicle, acutish, more or 

 less spreading, green, the terminal one shortish and erect. 



Obs. In the confusion which exists concerning this genus, vre have 

 adopted above the characters given by Gray ; they are probably, as he 

 suggests, all forms of one species. They are natives of tropical Amer- 

 ica, and are exceedingly common about waste places and in cultivated 

 soils, especially in the latter part of summer. 



Flcu-ers greenish; stem armed with spines home in pairs in the axih 

 of the leaves ; stamens and sepals 5. 



4 A. spino'sus, L. Stem striate, smoothish, much branched ; leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate ; axils spinose ; flowers pentandrous, in compound ter- 

 minal and axillary spikes. 



Fig 178. The Thorny Amaranth (Amarantus spinosus), a branch. 



