Polygomwm.] ^ cxix. Potyconacex. (J.D. Hooker.) 37 
rather slender ; peduncles densely glandular; bracts short; flowers bright red, hardly 
exserted, Stamens 8. Nut broadly trigonous, black,—I find no character for Meiss- 
ner's var. verrucosum,'of which I think the varnish is due to the glue used in mounting 
the specimen. 
Var. minor; smaller, weaker, more slender and sparsely hirsute, green when dry, 
leaves 1-1} in. elliptic-lanceolate obtuse. Wall. Cat, 1718 C.—Nepal (cult. in Hort. 
Bot. Cale.) ; Silhet. 
| 32. P. stagninum, Ham. mss.; Meissn. in Wall. Pl. As. Rar. iii. 56, 
in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 104; stem erect or ascending and branches glabrous 
below above and peduncles subsilkily strigose, leaves 3-5 in. lanceolate or 
linear-lanceolate acuminate strigosely pubescent on both surfaces glandular 
or not beneath, stipules strigose cilia dnorter than the tube, racemes strict 
erect, bracts close glabrous or strigose ciliate, perianth eglandular. P. to- 
mentosum, Wall. Cat. 1709/4 in part, E, G, H. P. barbatum, Wall. Cat. 
1708 F. P. Bishire, Ham. mss. ; and P. conspersum, Meissn. in Wall. Pl. 
4s. Rar. l. c., and in DC. L c. 102. P. hispidum, Bab. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 
xviii. 100 (not of Don). P. Hamiltonii, Meissn. in DC. l. c. 104, excl. syn. 
P. hispidum, (not of Sprengel). P. Goyalpara, Herb. Ham. P. Horne- 
manni, Meissn. in DC. l. c. 107. 
Throughout the hotter parts of India, from CHITTAGONG, CACHAR and BENGAL 
to CHAMBA, ascending the Himalaya in Sikkim and Kumaon to 4000 ft. MYSORE, 
Clarke. Prav and Burma, Wallich. 
. Annual? Stem simple or branched. Leaves usually grey when dry, young often 
silky. Racemes stout or slender ; peduncles usually long and stout ; bracts glabrous 
or more or less (sometimes densely) strigose, very many-fld. ; flowers white. Styles 
long, slender, connate below. Nut pitchy black.—Very near P. barbatum, and 
probably a form of it; but the peduncles are invariably strigose, the racemes and 
cilia of the stipules both shorter. Meissner refers Sprengel's Hamiltonii which is 
Hamilton’s hispidum) to the neighbourhood of P. barbatum, but I am disposed to place 
it under P, Jlaccidum, whilst the rest of Meissner's Hamiltonii-comes here. 
33. P. barbatum, Linn.; Meissn.in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 104; branches 
stout erect and peduncles glabrous, or nearly so, leaves 4-7 in. lanceolate or 
inear-lanceolate acuminate glabrous except the ciliolate margins and mid- 
rib beneath, stipules®strigose cilia longer than the tube, racemes 2-4 in. 
slender erect, bracts close glabrous sparingly and shortly ciliate, perianth 
eglandular white, stamens 5-8. Bab. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. 100; Wall. 
Cat, 1708, excl. F; Wight Ic.t.1798; Miquel Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 999. P. rivu- 
lare, Ken. Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 290; Grah. Cat. Bomb. Pl. 172; Dalz. § 
Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 214. P. Hornemanni, Meissn. in DC. Ll. c. 107. P. Mar- 
moram: & fluviatile, Herb. Ham. 
Throughout the hotter parts of India, from AssAM to the INDUS, and southwards 
to MALACCA, PENANG and CEYLON.—DISTRIB. Tropical Asia and Africa. - 
The nearly or quite glabrous stems and peduncles, the long bearded stipules, long 
Weak slender but erect racemes, and shorter weaker cilia of the bracts, best distinguish 
this from- p, stagninum ; but none of these characters holds good by itself, and I 
look to Indian botanists for further information. I am not certain that the synonymy 
of these plants is quite right, there is so much confusion between the names adopted 
by Hamilton, Wallich and Roxburgh, which last author has different names for 
the same plant in his Herbarium, his Icones and his Flora. The barbatum 
of “Flora Indica” is, I think, certainly what I have retained as flaccidum ; that so 
led on his authority in Herb. Wallich is P. Hydropiper; that of his Icones is 
undoubted]y P. tomentosum; whilst in his Herbarium P. barbatum is jabelled P. 
p aticum, which suggests to me that it is the rivulare of “ Flora Indica," of which 
ere is a poor drawing in his Icones, representing a very narrow-leaved plant with 
short stipules and slender racemes of white flowers. 
