Cyathula.~\ 
AMARANTH ACE.®. 
269 
barren ones represented by copious hooked bristles. Bracts 3 to a 
flower. Perianth-segments 5, free, lanceolate, comment. Stamens 
5 ; filaments united at the base, alternating with 5 staminodes ; anthers 
2-celled. Ovary 1 -celled, 1-ovuled ; style filiform ; stigma capitate. 
Utricle indehiscent. Seed vertical. — Herbs, with opposite entire 
leaves, the flowers in terminal spikes or globose heads. Distrib. 
Tropics of both hemispheres. Species about 10. 
1. C. prostrata, Blume ; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 326. An 
annual finely pilose herb, with stems slender and trailing, or more often 
erect and branched, 2-4 feet high. Leaves short-petioled, membranous, 
oblong, acute, 1-3 in, long, thinly pilose or glabrous. Spikes peduncled, 
terminal, 1-3-nate, foot long, dense in the upper half, lax in the 
lower. Perianth-segments lanceolate, in. long, dull green, cartilagi- 
nous, more or less pilose. Unmodified bracts deltoid-cuspidate, much 
shorter than the perianth. Hooked spines variable in size and length, 
often very numerous and as long as the perianth. Achyranthes debilis, 
Poir. ; Bojer, Hort. Maur. 267. Desmochoota micrantlio , DC.; Bojer 
loc. cit. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, in shaded woody situations. Very variable in habit 
and hairiness. C. achy r ant hoides, Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 326, and C. geminata, 
Moq. loc. cit. 330, are tall erect subglabrous varieties with stouter spikes and larger 
flowers. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. 
4. ALTERNANTHERA, Porsk. 
Plowers hermaphrodite, all uniform and fertile, 3-bracteate. Peri- 
anth-segments 5, glabrous, lanceolate. Stamens 3 ; filaments united 
in a cup ; staminodes subulate, entire ; anthers 1-celled. Ovary 1- 
celled, 1-ovuled ; style short ; stigma capitate. Utricle indehiscent, 
obcordate, compressed. Seed vertical. — Trailing herbs, with opposite 
entire leaves, the flowers in small globose heads, sessile in their axils. 
Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. Species 30. 
1. A. sessilis, B. Br. ; Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 357. An annual 
herb, with trailing glabrous or subglabrous jointed stems, rooting at 
the lower nodes. Leaves nearly sessile, oblanceolate or oblong-spathu- 
late, 1-3 in. long, membranous, glabrous or subglabrous. Plowers in 
dense globose heads in. broad, in the axils of leaves, sessile or 
nearly so ; bracts deltoid, the same texture as the perianth-segments, 
not more than a quarter their length. Perianth pure white, under 
in. long ; segments lanceolate, acute, 1-nerved on the back. A. denti- 
culata , R. Br. : Moq. in DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 356. 
Mauritius, Seychelles, and Rodriguez, a common weed. Cosmopolitan in the 
tropics. Brk.de amballage. 
