Tas. 6476, 
POLYGON UM compactum. 
Native of Japan. 
Nat. Ord. Poryconacrm.—Tribe Potyaone. 
Genus Potyconum, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p- 99, ined.) 
Potyrconum (Pleuropterus) compactum ; caulibus decumbentibus, ramis suberectis 
rigidis sulcatis foliosis, foliis glabris breviter petiolatis late ovatis breviter cus- 
pidatis rigidis basi late truncato-cordatis, marginibus undulatis, nervis subtus 
reticulatis, ochreis brevissimis deciduis, racemis axillaribus et terminalibus 
erectis strictis gracilibus simplicibus multifloris puberulis, floribus confertis, 
bracteis minutis obtusis multifloris, pedicellis capillaribus basin versus articu- 
latis, perianthio fructifero cuneato, segmentis 3 exterioribus auctis carina 
dorsali in alam latam in pedicello desinentem expansa, stigmatibus 3. 
P. cuspidatum, Sieb. et Zuce., var. compactum, Hort. 
The Japanese and N. Chinese Polygonums of the section 
Pleuropterus, are amongst the most ornamental herbaceous 
plants of the garden ; some of them, as P. cuspidatum and 
Sachaliense, throwing up, in the summer time, branches so 
numerous, long (often eight feet high), and strong, as to 
become truly bushes. They are of graceful habit, easily 
grown, perfectly hardy, and increase by underground 
suckers with such rapidity that the larger sorts are apt 
to prove troublesome monopolists of the soil. Of these 
Polygonums the two named above are commonly culti- 
vated, and both are erect; a third is a climber, the P. 
multiflorum, Thunb. To these must be added the subject 
of the present plate, which has long been cultivated at Kew 
under the name of P. compactum, and which, though closely 
allied to P. cuspidatum, and possibly a form of it, differs in 
its dwarf size, decumbent lowly habit, small rigid leaves with 
waved margins, and strict erect simple female racemes. 
Like all its near allies, as far as I have observed them, it is 
dicecious, the male plants having stamens which are longer 
than the perianth, and a minute rudiment of an ovary 
without stigmas, and the females having very short stamens 
EEBRUARY Ist, 1880. 
