i^54 OCTANDRIA. TRIGYMA. 



Order II.— -DIGYNIA. 



569. CHRYSOSPLENIUM. L. (Golden Saxi- 

 frage.) 



Calix superior 4 or 5-cleft, coloured. Corolla 

 none. Ccj^sitZe birostrate, i- celled, many-seeded. 



Herbaceous, fubaquatic, leaves simple, thickish, oppo- 

 site or alternate; flowers small sessile, often terminal and 

 surrounded with floral leaves, mosth 4-cleft and oclan- 

 drous, tlic primary flower sometimes decandrous. 



Species 1. C. oppositifoiium. Obs. Leaves both oppo- 

 site ind alternate. Stamina seated in the indentions of 

 the margined and sinuated receptacle, indentions 8. — A 

 genus probably of a single species indigenous to Europe 

 and America. 



Order III.— -TRIGYNIA. 



5r0. POLYGONUM. Z. (Persicaria, Buck- 

 wheat, &c.) 



Calix 5-parfed, pctaloid. persistent. Seed !, 

 superior, 3-sided, covered by the connivent ca- 

 lix. (The number of the stamina and styles un- 

 certain.) 



A polymorphous and divided genus? nearly all the 

 species herbaceous; le;\ves alternate; linear, spathulate, 

 lanceolate, ovate, cordate or sagittate, sheath mg at the 

 base, sheathes or ochreae cyliiulric, embracing the stem; 

 flowers axillar}-, or spiked, in a few species disposed in 

 paniculated racemes, color reddish or white. Peduncles 

 articulated, as in Eriogonum and perhaps in other genera 

 of Polygonece] Stems and branches, often nodose, but in- 

 articulate. 



§ I. Ochrex, manyfoivered, (3 — 5) 



Species 1. P. aviadare, flowers octandrous, styles 3, 

 peduncles shorter than the flowers, seeds granulated. 

 a. angusiifolium. Mich. 1. p. 237, leaves small, lanceolate- 

 oblong, acute. /3. latifoliion, leaves broad oval, obtuse, 

 fiowtrspentandrous,stemadscendent. 2 *glaucum. Flow- 

 ers ociandrous, st^•les 3; stem difi^use, prostrate, leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, thick and glaucous; pedicells as long as 

 the flowers; seeds ucuteangular, acuminate, even, and 



