1250 



POLYGONUM* injucundum. 

 Unattractive Polygonum. 



OCTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Polygone^. 



POLYGONUM. — Suprd, vol. 13. fol. 1065. 



P. injucundum ; foliis triangularibus in petiolo attenuatis acutis, ochreis 

 cylindricis truncatis glabris, racemis axillaribus foliis brevioribus, floribus 

 octandris digynis, caule fruticoso. 



Caulis fruticosus, pedalis bipedalisve, teres, pwpureus, parum ramosus. 

 Folia triangularia, glabra, in petiolo attenuata, venis inconspicuis. Ochrese 

 membranacece, cylindricce, truncatcB, petiolo breviores. Racemi axillares, 

 erecti, foliis breviores; bractese membranacece, ovatce. Perianthium 5-Jidum, 

 cequaliter patens, herbaceum, tubo obconico, subcarnoso. Stamina 8, in disco 

 connata. Ovarium subrotundum, digynum. 



This rare, though not very interesting, plant is a native 

 of the high parts of the Cordilleras lying between Valpa- 

 raiso and Santiago, where it was collected for the Horticul- 

 tural Society by Mr. James M'Rae. Our drawing was 

 made in the month of May 1828, from a plant growing in 

 the Chiswick Garden, where it is cultivated in the frames. 



That the genus now called Polygonum comprehends 

 several groups of plants requiring to be separated as 

 distinct genera, is, we think, quite apparent from the very 



* So called on account of the numerous geniculations of tlie stems of 

 some of the species {ttoXik;, many, and yow, a knee), according to De Theis 

 and others : but this derivation is perhaps applicable to the herb ■^oXvyovu.Tov 

 of the Greeks, which is supposed to have loeen the Convallaria latifolia of 

 modern Botanists, rather than to the subject of the present article. The 

 -TFohijyovov of the Greeks, under which were comprehended several species of 

 the genus Polygonum, is said by the lexicographers to be derived from 

 ToXvyovoi;, fruitful, productive; and Scribonius Largus expressly declares 

 that " herba, quse, quia multa est, et ubique nascitur, Trohvyovov appellatur." 



