AMARANTHACEAE 
47 
Plants matted ; flowering mostly at end of branches.3. S. clevelandi. 
Annuals ; quite erect or ascending. :A. S. salina. 
1. S. macrotheca (Hornem.) Heynh. Stems several, erect or ascend¬ 
ing ; herbage deep green and often viscid-pubescent; leaves narrowly 
linear, 2.4 to 3.6 cm. long; petals 6 to 8 mm. long, pink.—Sandy borders 
of salt marshes. Var. leucantha Jepson. Mostly glabrous; flowers 
white.—Alkaline plains of the interior. Var. scariosa (Britt.) Rob. 
Herbage pale; internodes short.—Sea-bluffs. 
2. S. rubra (L.) J. & C. Presl. var. perrennans Greene. Stems pros¬ 
trate, long, slender and wiry, many from a matted or tufted center, 
branching little; leaves narrowly linear, 3 to 10 mm. long; stipules sil- 
very-scarious, conspicuous; petals reddish, 4 mm. long, about equaling 
the sepals.—Beaten paths and old roadways; nat. from Eur. 
3. S. clevelandi (Greene) Rob. Stems prostrate, forming deep green 
mats 12 to 31 cm. broad; herbage viscid-glandular; leaves filiform, con¬ 
spicuously fascicled in the axils, all longer than the internodes; flowers 
in terminal cymes; corolla white, 6 to 8 mm. broad.—Sandy soil, San 
Francisco to San Diego. 
4. S. salina J. & C. Presl. Mostly erect, branching, 7 to 19 cm. high; 
leaves narrowly linear, commonly shorter than the internodes; petals 
pink, 2 to 3 mm. long, shorter than the sepals; pod longer than the 
sepals.—Alkaline plains. 
6. SPERGULA L. Spurrey 
Diffusely branching annuals. Leaves narrowly linear or sub-terete, 
apparently in whorls but really opposite, several others of their own size 
being crowded in the axils. Stipules small and scarious. Petals white, 
entire. Stamens 10, occasionally 5. Styles 5. Pod 5-valved. (Latin 
spargere, to scatter, in reference to the dispersion of the seeds.) 
1. S. arvensis L. Corn Spurrey. Stems 2.8 to 5.7 dm. long; hairs 
short, glandular; flowers in a cymose panicle with strongly divergent 
branches; corolla 8 mm. broad.—Fields and orchards; weed nat. from 
Eur. 
AMARANTHACEAE. AMARANTH FAMILY 
Ours coarse herbs with simple entire leaves. Flowers usually greenish, 
inconspicuous, perfect or unisexual, in ours congested in spikes or clus¬ 
ters. Corolla none. Stamens 5, sometimes fewer. Ovary superior, 1- 
celled, with 2 or 3 stigmas. Fruit a utricle.—About 550 species, mostly 
tropical, none in the cold zones. 
1. AMARANTHUS L. A MARANTH 
Annual weeds with alternate leaves. Flowers bracteate, usually mo¬ 
noecious or polygamous, rarely dioecious. Seed mostly black and shining. 
(Greek a-, not, and maraino, to fade, the spikes of certain species re¬ 
taining their color in drying.) 
Flowers in dense stout terminal and axillary spikes ; sepals 5, mostly unequal. 
1. A. retroflexus. 
Flowers in small axillary clusters of short spikes; sepals 3, subequal. 
2. A. graecizans. 
1. A. retroflexus L. Rough Pigweed. Stoutish, with erect or as- 
