234 OCTANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Polygonum. 



joint. Leaves on short stalks^ spreading, a little drooping, lan- 

 ceolate, entire, rough on the rib and margin, mostly marked, 

 about the middle, with a black, crescent-shaped spot ; the un- 

 der surface in /3, and both in some degree in y, are clothed with 

 close, white, cottony, or silvery, hairs j but the slightest expe- 

 rience or inquiry will determine them to be mere varieties. The 

 stipulas are rather short and wide, membranous, strongly ribbed, 

 downy, partly fringed. Clusters several, solitary, terminal and 

 axillary, erect, dense, obtuse, their stalks smooth, various in 

 length, as the clusters are in size. Fl. rose-coloured, or whitish. 

 Cal. with 5 segments ; Haller often found but four in the hoary 

 variety. Stam. always 6. Styles united full halfway up j oc- 

 casionally 3. Seed obscurely triangular. 



3. P. lapathifolium. Pale-flowered Persicaria. 



Styles two, distinct. Stamens six. Flower-stalks rough. 

 Stipulas beardless. Seeds concave at each side. 



P. lapathifolium. Linn. Sp. PI. 5 1 7. Willd. v. 2. 442. Fl. Br. 425. 

 Eiigl. Bot. V. 20. t. 1382. Syn. 96. Hook. Scot. 121. ^it. H. 

 Kew. ed.2. v. 2.417. Relh. 156. Sibth. 129. Abbot 89. 



P. pensylvanicum. Curt. Lond.fasc. 1. t. 24, 25. Huds. ed. 1. 148. 



P. persicaria ^. Huds. ed. 2. 170. 



P. pallidum. With. 381. Hull 85. 



Persicaria mitis major, foliis pallidioribus D. Bobarti, Raii Syn.l45. 

 Pet. H. Brit. t.S.f.ll. 



Hydropiper. Lob. Ic.3\5.f. Ger. Em.AAb.f. 



j3. With red stems and flowers. Curt, under t. 25. 



Persicaria major, lapathi foliis, calyce floris purpureo. Tourn. Inst. 

 510. 



y. Stem spotted. Curt. t. 25. 



Persicaria latifolia geniculata, caulibus maculatis D. Rand. Raii 

 Syn. 145. 



S. Leaves hoary beneath. Curt, under t. 25. From the author. 



Persicaria maculosa procumbens, foliis subtus incanis. Dill, in 

 Raii Syn. 146. Pet. H. Brit. t. 3./. 10. 



In cultivated ground, especially such as is rich and moist, and on 

 dunghills. 



Annual. July, August. 



Root fibrous. Stem with numerous, spreading, often decumbent, 

 branches, swelled above the joints, various in luxuriance. Leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, acute, rough-edged, sometimes hoary ; some- 

 times marked with a black spot in the middle ; always thickly 

 sprinkled at the back with glandular dots ; tapering at the base 

 into short roughish footstalks. Stipulas obtuse, ribbed, occa- 

 sionally very slightly fringed. Flower -stalks rough with minute 

 glandular points. Clusters dense, short, obtuse, erect, finally 

 drooping. Fl. either greenish white, or reddish, Stayn, shorter 



