Polygonum.] CXIX. POLYGONACEX. (J, D. Hooker.) 51 
Panicle very variable in form, effuse, branches sometimes strict and erect or diverg- 
jing, at others horizontal and decurved ; bracts short, obtuse ; pedicels sometimes gin; 
flowers white or pink, Sepals, 2 outer oblong, inner much larger and broader. Nut 
pale, not tightly enclosed in the perianth.— The Affghanistan plant of Griffith (Journ. 
No, 1040) referred by Boissier and Meissner to P. alpinum, is, I think, certainly 
P. polystachyum. 
Var. glabra, Meissn. 1. c. ; quite glabrous. . 
Var. pubescens, Meissn. 1. c. ; puberulous pubescent or tomentose with grey or 
buff tomentum on the leaves beneath. 
Var. longifolia; leaves linear-oblong 8-9 by 2-2} in. glabrous above finely pubes- 
cent beneath, base subcordately truncate, panicle small.—Sikkim ; at Yakla, alt. 
12-16,000 ft., Clarke. 
Var. crispata; leaves glabrous margins crisped and undulately crenulate.— 
Chumba, R. Ellis. . E 
Var. Griffithii ; leaves densely clothed beneath with silky tomentum, stipules silky. 
—Mishmi Hills, Grigith. 
62. P. rumicifolium, Royle mss.; Bab. in Trans. Linn. Soe, xviii. 
112; herbaceous, glabrous or sparsely puberulous or laxly pubescent, stem 
very robust simple, leaves petioled broadly ovate or ovate-cordate obtuse or 
subacute, flowers in small axillary and terminal dense-fld. panicles, nut very 
broadly ovate acutely 3-gonous, about as long as the perianth. Meissn. in 
DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 138, excl. var. oblongum; Garcke in Bot. Reise i r. 
padem, 136. P. ramoso-spicatum, Klotzsch in Bot. Reise Pr. Waldem. 
R W ereny HIMALAYA ; from Nepal, Wallich, to Kashmir, alt. 10-14,000 ft., 
oyle, &c. t 
Root stout, perennial. Stem 6-18 in., as thick as a swan’s quill or less, ee 
grooved. Leaves 3-5 by 13-3 in., succulent, green, margin even or bier scales 
Very slender; petiole 4-1 in., very stout; stipules large, lax, glabrous, , poe 
Sessile, the axillary ones usually shorter than the leaves; flowers green, $1 in. ding. 
erianth cleft to near the cuneate base, segments subequal, orbicular, Ls 2 
ut pale, very broad.—I think that some of Boissier’s varieties of P. nin, var 
(polymorphum) are referable to this, which closely resembles the P. dipinna q do 
lapathifolium of N.E. Asia and N.W. America, but has much larger powert, aller 
not know what Babington's var. B is with retrorsely hairy stems and ma Iimala a 
raves. The young parts are acid, and eaten like rhubarb in the Western ber 1707 
I find specimens of this distributed by Wallich from Nepal, under the num Societ 
um emodi) in Herbs. Hooker ani Bentham, but not in the Linnean y 
erb., where the species is absent. 
de Tall, herbaceous or shrubby species. Perianth campanulate, cleft 
two-thirds way down, base rounded; lobes oblong erecto-patent. 
63. P. campanulatum, Hook. f.; pubescent or tomentose, stem 
creeping and stolonifereas below ak de grooved, leaves petioles pe ian 
evate or lanceolate acuminate or tip caudate base acute or rounce h 5 nut 
Nodding or pendulous in terminal cymes with divaricate brane ifolium 
-winged rather longer than the campanulate perianth. P. up ol "t 
"7" y P oblonga, Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 138.—Polyg. n. 69 a , 
Herb. Ind. Or. H. L&T. 
TEMPERATE and SUBALPINE HIMALAYA; E. Nepal and Sikkim, alt. 9-12,000 ft., 
. H., Clarke; Kumaon, alt. 7500 ft., Strachey g Winterbottom. BEEN 
Stem 2-3 ft, high, prostrate or ascending, dichotomously branched, gla m 
Pubescent above, Leaves 3-6 by 1-2} in., more or less pubescent on bot. sur "Yn 
Iu rey, or (beneath) büff tomentum, membranous or rather coriaceous ; peti 
uite 
"—-; stipules ample, deciduous near the base or altogether. Inflorenence c 
