SWISS FLOWERS. 103 



two lips, the upper with three, the lower with two, teeth ; style 

 very prominent and two-cleft. The leaves are large, oval, 

 lanceolate, irregularly crenate at the edge, very much veined 

 and wrinkled, bright green above — with a pinkish middle 

 vein, broad at the base of the leaf — and light-coloured and 

 hairy beneath. Very common in meadows and by road-sides. 



82 and 83. Polygonum. — Persicaria. 



(PLATES XLV. and XLVL) 



" Be sure you look out for my pink grass," said a friend 

 on hearing of our going to Andermatt ; so of course, though 

 it happened to be pouring wet the day we were there, we 

 made a point of getting this *' pink grass," which was abun- 

 dant in the meadows, but which turned out to be no grass 

 after all. It was, however, not difficult to mistake it for 

 such, as its pretty pink spikes were seen about the same size 

 and height amid the grasses waving around it. The Poly- 

 gonums have no corolla, but a coloured calyx with four or 

 ■five divisions that looks like one ; the stamens vary, being 

 from five to eight ; styles two or three. 



P. Bistorta (Fig. 82), or Snake- weed, the twisting of the 

 root giving rise to the name, is a handsome plant from one 



