from Trop. Amer.)

[*][*] _Flowers crowded in close and small axillary cl.u.s.ters; stems low, spreading or ascending; stamens and sepals 3, or the former only 2._

1. A. albus, L. (TUMBLE WEED.) Smooth, pale green; _stems whitish, erect or ascending_, diffusely branched; leaves small, obovate and spatulate-oblong, very obtuse or retuse; flowers greenish; sepals ac.u.minate, half the length of the _rugose fruit_, much shorter than the _subulate rigid pungently pointed bracts; seed small, {2/3}"

broad_.--Waste grounds, common.

2. A. blitodes, Watson. Like the last, but _prostrate or dec.u.mbent_; spikelets usually contracted; _bracts ovate-oblong, shortly ac.u.minate_; sepals obtuse or acute; _fruit not rugose; seed about 1" broad_.--From Minn. to Mo. and Tex., and westward, and introduced eastward as far as western N. Y.

A. BLTUM, L., resembles the last, but is usually erect, with shorter and more scarious bracts, and a smaller seed more notched at the hilum.--Near N. Y. City and Boston. (Adv. from Eu.)

-- 2. _Utricle thinnish, bursting or imperfectly circ.u.mscissile; flowers moncious._

A. SPINSUS, L. (Th.o.r.n.y AMARANTH.) Smooth, bushy-branched; stem reddish; leaves rhombic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, dull green, a pair of _spines in their axils_; upper cl.u.s.ters sterile, forming long and slender spikes; the fertile globular and mostly in the axils; flowers yellowish-green, small.--Waste grounds, N. Y. to E. Kan., and southward.

(Nat. from Trop. Amer.)

-- 3. EuXOLUS. _Utricle rather fleshy, remaining closed or bursting irregularly; no spines; bracts inconspicuous._

3. A. pumilus, Raf. Low or prostrate; leaves fleshy and obovate, emarginate, strongly nerved; flower-cl.u.s.ters small and axillary; _stamens and sepals_ 5, the latter half the length of the obscurely 5-ribbed fruit.--Sandy beaches, R. I. to Va.

A. CRiSPUS, Braun. Very slender, proc.u.mbent, p.u.b.escent; leaves small, light green, rhombic-ovate to -lanceolate, acute, the margin crisped and undulate; flowers in small axillary cl.u.s.ters; bracts and sepals scarious, oblanceolate, acute or obtuse; utricle about as long, roughened, not nerved nor angled. (A. viridis, _Man._)--Streets of Albany, New York City and Brooklyn; doubtless introduced, but the native habitat unknown.

2. ACNDA, Mitch. WATER-HEMP.

Characters of Amarantus, except that the flowers are completely dicious and the pistillate ones without calyx. Bracts 1--3, unequal. Staminate calyx of 5 thin oblong mucronate-tipped sepals, longer than the bracts; stamens 5, the anther-cells united only at the middle. Stigmas 2--5, often long and plumose-hispid. Fruit somewhat coriaceous and indehiscent, or a thin membranous utricle dehiscing irregularly (rarely circ.u.mscissile), usually 3--5-angled. (Name from a- privative, and ???d?, _a nettle_.)

-- 1. ACNIDA proper. _Fruit indehiscent, with firm and close pericarp._

1. A. cannabina, L. Usually stout, 2--6 high or more, glabrous; leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, ac.u.minate, long-petioled; sepals of sterile flowers ovate-oblong, obtuse or acutish; bracts usually thin and lax, much shorter than the fruit, sometimes more rigid and longer; fruit about 1" long, obovate, the pericarp rather thin, more or less rugosely angled; seed somewhat turgid, not angled, usually less than 1" long, shining.--Salt or brackish marshes, coast of N. Eng. to Fla.

2. A. rusocarpa, Michx. Very similar; fruit larger, 1--2" long, the pericarp thicker, and the larger seed flattened with thick margins, usually thickest on the cotyledonar side.--N. Y. (?) and Penn. to S. Car.; apparently much less common than the last, though it is often difficult to positively distinguish the species from the immature fruit.

-- 2. MONTeLIA. _Fruit dehiscing irregularly, the pericarp thin, loose and usually roughened; not salt-marsh plants._

3. A. tuberculata, Moq. Tall and erect, or sometimes low and dec.u.mbent; leaves lanceolate, acute or acutish or sometimes obtuse; sepals of sterile flowers lanceolate, acute or ac.u.minate; pistillate flowers closely cl.u.s.tered in more or less dense naked or leafy axillary and terminal spikes (or the axillary capitate); bracts rather rigid, ac.u.minate, equalling or exceeding the fruit; utricle about " long; seed shining, --{1/3}" in diameter. (Montelia tamariscina, _Gray_, in part.)--Ohio to Dak., Mo., Ala., and La.

Var. subnuda, Watson. Erect or often prostrate, the lower cl.u.s.ters at least of pistillate flowers more or less cymose and often in globose heads; bracts thinner, narrow and lax, shorter than the fruit. (M.

tamariscina, var. concatenata, _Gray_, in part.)--W. Vt. (_Oakes_); Ont.

to Minn., and southward. Often appearing quite distinct from the type, but intermediate forms are not rare.

3. IRESNE, P. Browne.

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

Stamens mostly 5; filaments slender, united into a short cup at base; anthers 1-celled, ovate. Fruit a globular utricle, not opening.--Herbs, with opposite petioled leaves, and minute scarious-white flowers, crowded into cl.u.s.ters or spiked and branching panicles; the calyx, etc., often bearing long wool (whence the name, from e??es????, a wreath or staff entwined with fillets of wool).

1. I. celosiodes, L. Nearly glabrous, annual, erect, slender (2--4 high); leaves ovate-lanceolate; panicles very slender, often broad and diffuse, naked; bracts and calyx silvery-white, the fertile calyx twice longer than the broad bracts and densely silky-villous at base.--Dry banks, Ohio to Kan., and far southward. Sept.

4. FRLiCHIA, Moench.

Flowers perfect, 3-bracted. Calyx tubular, 5-cleft at the summit, below 2--5-crested lengthwise, or tubercled and indurated in fruit, enclosing the indehiscent thin utricle. Filaments united into a tube, bearing 5 oblong 1-celled anthers, and as many sterile strap-shaped appendages.--Hairy or woolly herbs, with opposite sessile leaves, and spiked scarious-bracted flowers. (Named for _J. A. Froelich_, a German botanist of the last century.)

1. F. Floridana, Moquin. Root annual; stem leafless above (1--3 high); leaves lanceolate, silky-downy beneath; spikelets crowded into an interrupted spike; calyx very woolly, becoming broadly winged, the wings irregularly toothed.--Dry sandy places, S. Minn, to Ill., Col., Tex., and Fla.

2. F. gracilis, Moq. More slender, with narrow leaves, the spikelets smaller, and the crests of the matured calyx of nearly distinct rigid processes--Col. to Tex., and is reported from Kansas.

(Addendum) 5. CLADoTHRIX, Nutt.

Flowers perfect, 3-bracted. Sepals 5, erect, rigid-scarious, somewhat pilose. Stamens 5, the filaments united at base; anthers large, 1-celled. Stigma large, capitate, 2-lobed. Utricle globose, indehiscent.--Densely stellate-tomentose low herbs or woody at base, with opposite petiolate leaves and very small flowers solitary or few in the axils. (Name from ???d??, _a branch_, and ????, _hair_, for the branching tomentum.)

1. C. lanuginsa, Nutt. Prostrate or ascending, much branched; leaves round-obovate to rhomboidal, 3--10" long.--Central Kan. (_Meehan_) and southwestward.

ORDER 87. CHENOPODIaCEae. (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY.)

_Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with mostly alternate leaves and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish flowers, with the free calyx imbricated in the bud; the stamens as many as its lobes, or occasionally fewer, and inserted opposite them or on their base; the 1-celled ovary becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achene. Embryo coiled into a ring around the mealy alb.u.men, when there is any, or else conduplicate, or spiral._--Calyx persistent, mostly enclosing the fruit. Styles or stigmas 2, rarely 3--5. (Mostly inert or innocent, weedy plants; several are pot-herbs, such as Spinach and Beet.)

[*] Embryo coiled into a ring about usually copious central alb.u.men.

Leaves flat, not spiny. Stem not jointed.

[+] Flowers perfect (or stamens only occasionally wanting), cl.u.s.tered or panicled; calyx obvious, persistent. Seed-coat crustaceous.

1. Cycloloma. Calyx 5-cleft, in fruit surrounded by a horizontal continuous membranaceous wing. Seed horizontal, crustaceous. Leaves sinuate-toothed.

2. Kochia. Like n. 1, but wing 5-lobed and seed-coat membranaceous.

Leaves entire.

3. Chenopodium. Calyx 3--5-parted, unchanged or becoming fleshy in fruit.

4. Roubieva. Calyx 3--5-toothed, becoming saccate. Leaves pinnatifid.

[+][+] Flowers moncious or dicious; the staminate in cl.u.s.ters, mostly spiked; the pistillate without calyx, enclosed between a pair of appressed axillary bracts.

5. Atriplex. Fruiting bracts with margins often dilated and sides often muricate.

[+][+][+] Flowers perfect, naked or 1-sepaled, solitary in the axils of the reduced upper leaves.

6. Corispermum. Pericarp oval, flattened, adherent to the vertical seed.

Leaves linear.

[*][*] Embryo narrowly horseshoe-shaped or conduplicate no alb.u.men. Stem fleshy, jointed; leaves reduced to opposite fleshy scales or teeth.

Flowers densely spiked, perfect.

7. Salicornia. Flowers sunk in hollows of the axis of the fleshy spike.

Calyx utricle-like.

[*][*][*] Embryo coiled into a spiral; alb.u.men mostly none. Leaves fleshy, alternate.