38 CXIX. POLYGONACE&. (J. D. Hooker.) Polygonum. 
34. P. serrulatum, Lagasc.; Boiss. Fl. Orient. iv. 1028 ; stem pros- 
trate and rooting below, branches and peduncles glabrous, leaves 9-4 in. 
subsessile linear- or elliptic-oblong or -lanceolate acute or acuminate, gla- 
brous or sparsely hairy beneath, base rounded cordate or acute, stipules 
strigose cilia as long as the tube, racemes 3-1} in. slender erect, bracts 
glabrous strongly often squarrosely ciliate, perianth eglandular, stamens 
5-8, nut trigonous polished. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 110. P. 
flaccidum, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 291 (not of Meissn. or Boiss. P. mite?, 
Wall. Cat. 1721 E, G, 1721/a in part. P. Rapte, Herb. Ham. 
Plains and low hills of N. INDIA, from Assam and BENGAL to the INDUS, ascend- 
ing to 4000 ft.; in the HIMALAYA, from Kumaon westwards.—DISTRIB. W. Asia, 
S. Europe, all Africa, America, Australia. . 
Habit between small states of P. barbatum and P. minus, of which latter this is 
probably a form with stouter racemes and more ciliate bracts and stipules. Specimens 
with leaves rounded or cordate at the base are distinct enough from both.  Boissier 
describes it as perennial with rosy flowers, but the Indian plant is an annual with 
white flowers. Meissner and Boissier could not have attended to Roxburgh's descrip- 
tion of his P. flaccidum (leaves cordate at the base), or they would have identified 
that plant with this; Roxburgh’s figure of this (under the name of P. flaccidum) 
represents the leaves as much broader and more cordate at the base than I have 
ever seen them to be. A remarkable state from Dufla in Bhotan, collected by 
Booth, has the under surface of the leaves studded with a yellow secretion in 
minute dots. 
Var. Donii ; tall, slender, leaves petioled elliptic or lanceolate acuminate at both 
ends sparsely hairy beneath, racemes long slender erect, bracts close imbricate with 
one far removed and low on the slender peduncle, cilia as long as the tube. P. Donii, 
Meissn. Monog. Polyg. 72, excl. syn., and in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 105, excl. cit. of 
Wight.—Nepal, Wallich. 
There are two sheets of this inthe Hookerian Herbarium (from Wallich, 1821), one 
with the narrow leaves described by Meissner, the other with much broader elliptic 
ones, They closely resemble P. flaccidum var. hispida, but the closer bracts with 
long spreading cilia and eglandular perianth distinguish it. From P. Posumbu most 
of the same characters separate it, but it is in many respects intermediate between 
these two. 
35. P. Posumbu, Ham. in Don Prodr. 71 (not of Wallich); flaccid, 
very slender, stem extensively creeping below and peduncles quite glabrous, 
leaves 1-3 in. petioled elliptic-lanceolate caudate-acuminate glabrous or 
sparsely hairy, stipules sparingly strigose, cilia stiff longer than the tube, 
peduncles and erect racemes filiform sometimes very long, bracts minute 
close or distant very shortly ciliate, perianth very small eglandular, nut per- 
fectly smooth and polished. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 105, in part; 
Miquel Fl. Ind. Bat. 1.1000. P. Donii, Wall. Cut. 1723 B. P. caespitosum, 
Blume Bijd. 532 (of Herb. Lugd. Bat.). P. gracile, Herb. Ham. 
TEMPERATE and SUBTROPICAL HIMALAYA; from Sikkim to Nepal. ASSAM, 
SILHET, CACHAR and the Kuasta Mrs., ascending to 5000 ft, —DrsrRIB. Munnipore, 
Java, China and Japan. 
Stem creeping for 1-3 ft., then ascending or decumbent for 12-18 in., simple or 
branched. Leaves very membranous, ciliolate; petiole sometimes 4 in. Racemes 
1-3 in., always erect, very variable in length, sometimes almost capillary and 5 in. 
long with distant bracts, at others short with imbricate upper bracts and remote 
lower ones (these resembling small specimens of serrulatum). Nut 3-gonous, very 
small.—There are no Nepal specimens of this in Hamilton's or Wallich’s Herbaria. 
Hamilton's are from Goalpara in Assam, and are not ticketed P. Posumbu, which 
name nowhere appears in his collection. Meissner’s a tenerum is the right plant; 
his 8 firmum is composed of this and of P. flaccidum; his y macrophyllum is P. 
Jlaccidum ; his 8? cespitosum is right; his e? ovatum would appear to be Ceratogo 
