3SG POLYGONACEJS. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 



long as the slender recurved pedicels, one or all more or less prominently "rain- 

 bearing. (R. divaricatus, Ell.) — Waste ground, around dwellings. Introduced 

 June - Aug. ty — Stem 2° - 3° high. Lowest leaves 1° - 1 £° long, 6' - 9' wide, 

 slightly crcnate, and wavy on the margins. 



6. It. pulcher, L. Branches rigid, spreading ; lowest leaves cordate- 

 oblong, somewhat fiddle-shaped, the upper lanceolate, acute ; whorls remote ; 

 valves longer than the thick pedicels, ovate-oblong, rigid, strongly toothed, more 

 or less prominently grain-bearing. — Around Charleston, Elliott. Introduced. 

 June and July. 



7. It. maritimus, L. Pubescent ; stem low, diffusely branched ; leaves 

 lanceolate, wavy-margined, the lower ones somewhat cordate or hastate at the 

 base, the upper linear; whorls compactly crowded in leafy spikes; valves small, 

 bristly on the margins, nearly covered by the large grain. (R persiearioides, L.) 

 — Sea-shores, North Carolina, and northward. Aug. and Sept. Q) — Stems 

 6' - 12' high. Spikes yellowish. 



* * Elowers dioecious. Herbs vnth sour juice. 

 ■*- Calyx not enlarged in fruit. 



8. It. AcetOSella, L. Root creeping; stems low, erect or ascending; 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate, or linear, entire or hastate-lobed ; panicle slender, leaf- 

 less ; whorls scattered, few-flowered ; valves ovate, gradnless, appressed to the 

 achenium. — Old fields and sterile soil, common. June and July. y. — Sterna 

 G' - 12' long. Leaves and flowers small. 



-•- ■<- Inner calyx-lobes dilated in fruit. 



9. It. hastatulus, Baldw. Stems clustered, erect; leaves glaucous, lance- 

 olate or linear, or the lowest oblong, entire or hastate-lobed ; whorls few-flowered, 

 scattered, or the upper ones crowded; valves round-cordate, entire, membrana- 

 ceous, reticulated, red or white, grainless. — Dry sands, along the coast and in 

 the middle districts, Florida to South Carolina. May and Juue. — Stem 1° - l£° 

 high. Leaves I' -2' long, the upper ones mostly entire. 



2. POLYGONELLA, Michx. 



Flowers perfect ordicecionsly polygamous. Calyx corolla-like, deeply 5-parted 

 or 5-sepalous ; the three inner sepals mostly enlarging and enclosing the 3-anglcd 

 achenium, glandless. Stamens 8: anthers roundish. Stigmas •'?, capitate. Em- 

 bryo Straight, or nearly so, in the centre, or at one side of the mealy albumen. — 

 Smooth and commonly glaucous herbs or shrubs, with Blender branching stems, 

 small alternate leaves, and small (lowers in spiked racemes. — Sheaths Bmooth. 

 Bracts imbricated, top-shaped, mostly I -flowered. Pedicels nodding in fruit 



§ 1. Eopolygonella. Filaments all alike, tubulate : stigmas nearly sessile: 



flowers diacioutlu polygamous: embryo in the centre <•/' the albumen. 



1. P. parvifolia, Michx. Shrubby and diffusely branched at the base; 



wedge-shaped or Linear-epatulate, vertical ; those on the sterile shoots im« 



bricated ; Bheaths obliquely truncate, pointless; racemes short, eery numerous, 



somewhat crowded in an oblong or corymbose panicle ; bracts truncate ; flowers 



