22 CXVIII PHYTOLACCACEE. (J. D. Hooker)  [PhAytolaeca. 
obtuse. Ripe carpels about 10, nearly free, blue-black.— The Japanese specimens 
have broader leaves than the Himalayan. The leaves are eaten cooked. ' 
Orver CXIX. POLYWGONACZIL. 
Herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves rarely opposite, entire .or serrulate; 
stipules (ochrew) scarious or membranous, usually sheathing the stem. 
Flowers usually 2-sexual, jointed on the pedicel. Perianth of 3-6, free or 
connate, persistent sepals, imbricate in bud. Stamens 5-8, rarely more or 
fewer, opposite the sepals. Disk annular glandular or 0. Ovary free, 
2-4-gonous; styles 1-3, stigmas various; ovule 1, basilar, orthotropous. 
Nut hard, usually enclosed in the calyx. Seed erect, testa membranous, 
albumen floury or horny; embryo various, radicle superior.—Genera 30, 
species about 600, chiefly temperate. 
Polygonear. familie sedifolia, Wall. Cat, 6286, from the mountains of Nepal, 
is a remarkable plant, which being without flower or fruit I fail to refer to its genus, 
or even order. It is prostrate, hirsute, consisting of creeping interlaced stems and 
branches as thick as a sparrow’s quill, the terminal ones bearing imbricate membra- 
- nous short cup-shaped ochrew with oblique entire ciliate mouths, and fleshy linear- 
oblong obtuse subsessile leaves }—} in. long, and hirsute on both surfaces; filiform 
simple root fibres are given off from the stem, and these also are hirsutely fibrillose. A 
solitary rigid peduncle, 4-4 in. long, terminates some of the branches, and this bears a 
small short cupular ochrea. The whole plant much resembles (superficially) a small 
, creeping hirsute ZEschynanthus. . > 
Tribe 1. Eupolygonese. Perianth 3-5-cleft. Stamens 1-8, rarely 
more. Stigmas 2-3, capitellate, rarely fimbriate. 
* Shrubs. 
Stamens 12-18. Styles 4 
Stamens 8. Styles3 . . 
** Herbs or undershrubs. 
Stamens 8 or fewer. Cotyledons flat SUP C. 
Stamens 8. Cotyledons plaited . . . . . . - 
. 1. CALLIGONUM. 
. 2. PTEROPYRUM. 
. 9. POLYGONUM. 
» « 4&  FAGOPYRUM. 
Tribe 2. Rumicese. Perianth 4-6-cleft. Stamens 9, rarely 6. Stigmas 
fimbriate, peltate or horseshoe-shaped. 
Sepals 6, unchanged in fruit, Nut 3-winged . . . . . . . . 5. Rnmtruw. 
Sepals 4, unchanged in fruit. Nut2-winged .-. . . . . . 6. OxxR14. 
Sepals 6, 3 inner enlarged in fruit (except R. acetosella) . . . . 7. RUMEX. 
- See Kenigia under Polygonum. 
1, CALLIGONUM, Linn. 
Rigid much-branched shrubs. Leaves alternate, linear subulate or 
obsolete, ochrea short. Flowers solitary or few, loosely clustered, ochreate, 
2-sexual. Sepals 5, flat. Stamens 12-18. Ovary 4-angled. Nut exserted, 
4-angled, angles variously crested winged echinate or setose. Seed oblong, 
terete or 4-angled; embryo central, straight, cotyledons narrow.—Species . 
20, in deserts of W. and Central Asia and Africa. 
C. polygonoides, Linn.; Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 29; an 
almost leatless shrub or small tree with terete pale flexuous branches and 
