POLYGONACER. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 387 
white, yellowish, or rose-color ; exterior sepals recurved ; valves orbicular, equal, 
longer than the ovate achenium.— Dry sandy soil, near the coast, Florida to 
North Carolina. Aug. and Sept.— Stem 1°-2° high. Leaves j'-1' long. 
Racemes }/ - 1/ long. 
2. P. gracilis, Meisner. Annual; stem tall and slender, paniculately 
branched above; leaves remote, wedge-oblong, obtuse, often wanting; sheaths 
truncate, pointless : racemes slender, scattered, forming a large and spreading 
panicle on the sterile plant, more crowded on the fertile; bracts truncate ; flow- 
ers white or pale rose-color, the fertile ones greenish ; sepals all erect; valves 
oval or elliptical, unequal (the interior longer), shorter than the ovate-lanceolate 
acuminate achenium. (Polygonum gracile, Nutt.) — Dry sand ridges in the 
pine barrens, Florida to South Carolina. Sept. and Oct. — Stem 29—59 Saya 
Leaves 1’ long. Racemes linear, 1/~3! long. 
3. P. brachystachya, Meisner. Shrubby ; branches slender; leaves 
linear, tapering from the obtuse apex to the base; sheaths obliquely truncate, 
somewhat pointed; panicle compound, leafy ; racemes short, oblong, nearly ses- 
sile; bracts truncate; exterior sepals keeled, reflexed ; valves oval, strongly 
I-nerved, longer than the rhomboidal achenium, nearly equal.— South Florida. 
Branches straight, p. ~14° long, Leaves 3"—5" long. Racemes j'long. 
4. P. Croomii, n. sp. Stem shrubby at the base; branches slender ; leaves 
very small, narrowly linear, obtuse, crowded or imbricated on the sterile shoots 5 
sheaths obliquely truncate, subulate-awned ; racemes slender, scattered in an 
open oblong panicle ; bracts of the filiform rachis obliquely truncate, pointed ; 
flowers minute, white ; exterior sepals recurved ; valves unequal, the 2 exterior 
roundish, the interior oblong, longer than the rhombic-ovate achenium. — In 
Carolina or Georgia, probably in the middle districts, Croom. — Stem apparently 
19-13? high. Leaves 2/-3" long. Racemes 3"-5" or the sterile ones at 
length 9" long. 
5. P. ciliata, Meisner. Stem herbaceous, nearly simple ; leaves subulate, 
very acute, sheaths fringed at the throat with a few long bristles; panicle simple, 
short, leafy at the base; spikes nearly sessile, filiform ; bracts minute, pointed ; 
pedicels very short; sepals oblong, obtuse, spreading longer than the achenium. 
— South Florida, near the Manatee River, Ztugel. — Stem 2° es sigue 
Leaves 1' - 1j' long. 3 
$2. Gonoryrum. Filaments unlike, the 3 interior dilated at the base : dia 
ie manifest: flowers perfect: embryo at one side of the albumen. S 
w P. Meisneriana, Shuttl. Stem shrubby, much branched; leaves mi- 
nute, filiform, obtuse ; sheaths truncate, pointless ; racemes long, forming small 
panicles at the end of the branches ; bracts loose, oblique, with the points spread- 
ing; exterior sepals recurved; valves equal, roundish, often emarginate, longer 
than the ovate acuminate achenium ; three interior filaments inversely sagittate 
; below the middle. — Alabama, Rugel, and near Macon, Georgia. — Stem ]o-29 ; 
" high, with filiform branchlets. Venim un irons int * 
aS WM: sA- long. Valves largest of all, = i 
