118 DR. H. F. HANCE'8 SUPPLEMENT TO 
India, in the Malay archipelago, in Formosa, and perhaps in 
Japan. This differs in nothing from the common European &. 
maritimus, Linn., save that the inner perigone-segments are half 
as large again, and have only one instead of two long setaceous 
teeth on each side below the middle. 
30. Polygonum interruptum, Bunge; Meissn. in DC. Prod. xiv. 111. 
In ditches and wet places. Extends to the north of China, 
but is not recorded from elsewhere. Possibly, as suggested by 
Prof. Meissner, a depauperated form of P. minus, Huds. 
*Polygonum perfoliatum, Linn. 
The achenium of this plant is completely enclosed in, and ad- 
heres at its base to, the very fleshy accrescent perigone, which 
has become of a deep indigo-blue colour. On account of this 
character, and also because the radicle is much longer than in 
any other known species, this has been raised to generic rank 
under the name of Chylocalya by Hasskarl, whose view is adopted 
by F. Schmidt (in Maxim. Prim. Fl. Amur. 236), Miquel (Fl. 
Ind. Bat. i. 1012), and latterly by Meissner (in Miq. Ann. Mus. 
Bot. Lugd.-Bat. ii. 65). But the latter character can scarcely 
be considered of sufficient importance to found a genus on, and 
the extent to which the perigone becomes changed in fruit varies 
a good deal in different Polygona. In P. chinense, Linn., for in- 
stance, when growing in good soil, it not only becomes quite bac- 
cate, but acquires a blue colour also. Instead of creating this into à 
new genus, I believe it would be better, as suggested by Ferd. v. 
Mueller (Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. iv. 131; Veget. of Chath. Isl. 
50), to reunite Muehlenbeckia with Polggonum, from which there 
are no characters to distinguish it but the fleshy fruiting peri- 
gone, the fringed or papillose stigmas, and the unisexual flowers. 
So far as regards the latter distinction, no great stress can well 
be laid on it, unless we are prepared in the allied genus Rumer 
to separate the Docks from the Sorrels, which groups, indeed, 
seem to me both in sensible properties and character more 
distict, inter se, than Polygonum and Muehlenbeckia. With re- 
spect to the succulent perigone, this is absent in M. polybotrya, 
Meissn., M. Cunninghamii, F. v. Muell, and J. polygonoides, 
F. y. Muell.; whilst the degree of fimbriation of the stigmas is 
very variable, scarcely observable in some of the South-American 
species, and absent in M. Cunninghamis, which is intermediate 
between the two genera. 
