Fas. 5238. 
POLYGONUM Curnenss; /oliis pictis. 
Chinese Buck-wheat ; painted-leaved. 
Nat. Ord, PoLyconace#,—Octanpria TRIGYNIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4622.) 
PotyGonum ({ Cephalophilon) Chinense ; caule erecto (vel decumbente) ramoso, 
foliis ovatis oblongisve, auriculis foliaceis ad basin petioli reniformibus 
deciduis, corymbo simplici vel paniculato, pedunculis piloso- vel glanduloso- 
scabriusculis dichotomis trifidisve, bracteis foliaceis cordatis suffultis, flori- 
bus 5-fidis octandris hemitrigynis, achenio triquetro. Meisn. 
Potyaconum Chinense. Linn. Sp. Pi. p. 520. Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 2. p. 453. Roxb. 
Fl. Ind. v. 2. p. 283. Hook. et Arn. Bot. of Beech. Voy. pp. 208, 269. 
Wight, Ic. Pl. Ind. Or. v. 5. t. 1806. Babingt. vin Linn. Trans. v. 18. p. 
109. Meisn.in Wall. Pl. Asiat. Rar. v. 3. p. 60, et in De Cand. Prodr. v. 
14. pars 1. p. 130. : 
AmprLyGonum Chinense. Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1828 ; Misc. p. 113. 
Polygonum, brachiatum, Poir., P. corymbosum, Willd., P. auriculatum, Meisn., 
and P. cymosum, Rowd., are all referred hither by Meisner ; as well as certain 
synonyms which he brings under some of his following varieties :—a. Thun- 
bergianum.—C. densiflorum, B/.—f. scabrum.—y. ovalifolium. Coccoloba 
Indica, Hb. Wight.—8. brachiatum. P. patens, Don. P. asperum, B/.— 
e. intermedium.—€. subhastatum.—y. corymbosum. 
Var. pictum ; foliis variegatis. (Tas. Nostr. 5238.) 
A native of China and Japan, as well as of almost all parts of 
the East Indies, and, like many other plants that are of extensive 
geographical distribution, this exhibits considerable variations in 
the form and size of the leaf, and with inflorescence sometimes 
in simple, soretimes in panicled heads, or corymbs. ‘The ordi- 
nary state of the plant, which was introduced to the Royal 
Gardens of Kew, by Sir George Staunton, Bart., in 1795, as a 
“hardy annual,” is perhaps too much like our native Buck- 
wheat, to be valued in our gardens. But we have lately come 
into possession of a state with variegated leaves, which is really 
worthy of cultivation as a greenhouse plant, for, in the open air, 
it can only be treated as annual. Some leaves are purple on 
the same stem with the green ones: and both are marked with 
broad, white lines, taking the shape of the letter V, margined 
MARCH Ist, 1861. 
