Without entering here into a purely botanical discussion, I may say that, after reading the descriptions quoted by Boissier, and looking at Wight’s[433] plate of _Spinacia tetandra_, Roxb., cultivated in India, and the specimens of several herbaria, I see no decided difference between this plant and the cultivated spinach with prickly fruit. The term _tetandra_ implies that one of the plants has five and the other four stamens, but the number varies in our cultivated spinaches.[434] If, as seems probable, the two plants are two varieties, the one cultivated, the other sometimes wild and sometimes cultivated, the oldest name, _S. oleracea_, ought to persist, especially as the two plants are found in the cultivated grounds of their original country. The _Dutch_ or _great spinach_, of which the fruit has no spines, is evidently a garden product. Tragus, or Bock was the first to mention it in the sixteenth century.[435] +Amaranth+—_Amarantus gangeticus_, Linnæus. Several annual amaranths are cultivated as a green vegetable in Mauritius, Bourbon, and the Seychelles Isles, under the name of _brède de Malabar_.[436] This appears to be the principal species. It is much cultivated in India. Anglo-Indian botanists mistook it for a time for _Amarantus oleraceus_ of Linnæus, and Wight gives an illustration of it under this name,[437] but it is now acknowledged to be a different species, and belongs to _A. gangeticus_. Its numerous varieties, differing in size, colour, etc., are called in the Telinga dialect _tota kura_, with the occasional addition of an adjective for each. There are other names in Bengali and Hindustani. The young shoots sometimes take the place of asparagus at the table of the English.[438] _A. melancholicus_, often grown as an ornamental plant in European gardens, is considered one of the forms of this species. Its original home is perhaps India, but I cannot discover that the plant has ever been found there in a wild state; at least, this is not asserted by any author. All the species of the genus _Amarantus_ spread themselves in cultivated ground, on rubbish-heaps by the wayside, and thus become half-naturalized in hot countries as well as in Europe. Hence the extreme difficulty in distinguishing the species, and above all in guessing or proving their origin. The species most nearly akin to _A. gangeticus_ appear to be Asiatic. _A. gangeticus_ is said by trustworthy authorities to be wild in Egypt and Abyssinia;[439] but this is perhaps only the result of such naturalization as I spoke of just now. The existence of numerous varieties and of different names in India, render its Indian origin most probable. The Japanese cultivate as vegetables _A. caudatus_, _A. mangostanus_, and _A. melancholicus_ (or _gangeticus_) of Linnæus,[440] but there is no proof that any of them are indigenous. In Java _A. polystachyus_, Blume, is cultivated; it is very common among rubbish, by the wayside, etc.[441]