278 



WEEDS AND USEFUL TLANTS. 



Thorny Amarantus. 



Root annual. Stem 18 inches -2 or 3 feet bigh, often purple. Leaves 1-2 inches long 

 rather obtuse, mucrouate, entire, roughish-dotted, with glaucous blotches beneath 

 •pdioles about as long as the leaves, with 2 subulate spines at base, one fourth to half an 

 inch in length. Flowers small, clustered in oblong terete, erect terminal and subterminal 

 spikes. * 



Cultivated lots, waj'-sides and waste places : introduced. Xative of India. Fl. August. 

 Fr. October. 



Ohs, This foreigner is naturalized in many places — especially in the 

 unfrequented streets and outskirts of our sea-port towns, — and is grad- 

 ually extending itself into the country. It is a vile nuisance wherever 

 it prevails, and cannot be too sedulously guarded against. 

 •K-^^ Flowers in close and small axillary dusters; stamens and sepals 3, 



or the former only 2. 

 5. A. al'bus, L. Pale green and smooth, much branched ; leaves obo- 

 vate and spatulate-oblong. emarginate, setaceously mucronate ; flowers 

 triandrous, in small axillary clusters. ' 

 White Amaeantus. 



Steml-1 or 3 feet high, rather stout, pale green or whitish, generally much branched 

 — the principal branches near the base, spreading. Leaces half an inch to an inch and a 

 half long, entire, narrovred at base to a slender peiioZe, one fourth of an inch to an inch 

 and a half long. Flowers pale green, inconspicuous, m small axillary bracteate clusters ; 

 hracU subulate-lanceolate, spinescently acuminate, longer than the flowers. 



Barn-yards, cultivated fields, &c. Fl. August, Fr. September. 



Ohs. A worthless common weed, considered by some as a native of 

 this country, but it has all the appearance of a naturalized plant, and 

 probably came from tropical America. 



Order LX. POLYGONA'CE^. (Buckwueat Family.) 



Herlts with alternate, usually entire, leaves, with stipules cohering and forming slimths 

 (ochrese) around the stem above its swollen joints ; ^^otoers generally perfect, with a more 

 or less persistent 3-6-cleft calyx ; stamens 4-12 inserted on the base of the calyx ; ovary 

 1-celled, bearing '2-3styles, becoming akene-like in fruit. Seed smgle, erect, straight, with 

 the embryo curved or straightish, on the outside of the albumen, or rarely in its centre. 

 ^Sepals mostly 5. , 

 Embryo curved around one side of the albumen. Cotyledons slender 



or flat. 1. POLTGO>TJM. 



Embryo in the albumen. Cotyledons broad and twisted-plaited. 2. Fagopykcm- 

 **Sepals 6. 



Fruit 3-angled, w'-ngless. 3. Rcjiex. 



Fruit 3-augled, winged at the angles. 4. Rhecji. 



1. POLY'GONUM, L. Kxot-weed. 



[Greek, Ppbjs, mmy, and Genu, a knee or joint ; the stem being much jointed.] 



Calyx oftep colored, embracing the fruit. Stamens 4-9, mostly 8. 

 Ovary l-co^'ed, compressed or triquetrous ; styles 2-3, more or less 

 united belo-v. Akenes lenticular or triquetrous, according as the styles 

 are 2 or 3 ; embryo in a groove of the albumen, and curved half way 

 around it. Flowers often with sheathing bracts; pedicels articulated. 



