338 POLYGONACE.E. 



(less than twenty). Fruit of five black fleshy carpels 

 arranged radially. 



Native of South America (Paraguay, etc.) but introduced 

 as a garden plant, and occasionally found as an escape near 

 Ootacamund and near Kodaikanal. Fyso?i 1852. Bourne 5095. 

 Previously recorded in India near Calcutta. 



POLYGONACE/E. 



Buck-wheat, Rhubarb, Dock, Sorrel, etc. 



Herbs with alternate leaves, peculiar in having a 

 thin tubular stipule sheathing the stem (and covering 

 the young leaf-bud). Flowers jointed to the pedicels. 

 Perianth of three to six parts, which persist till the fruit 

 is ripe and may or may not be separable into an outer 

 set (sepals) and an inner (petals). Stamens five to 

 eight, opposite the perianth segments. Ovary superior, 

 angled, with one basal erect ovule, almost peculiar in 

 having the micropyle at the opposite end to the point 

 of attachment. Fruit a nut usually enclosed in the 

 perianth, with floury or bony endosperm. 



Genera 30, species 600 chiefly in temperate regions. 



j Stamens nine : stigmas fimbriate : sepals in fruit much 

 J thickened in the centre and fringed with hooked hairs. 



^ I RUMEX. 



[ Stamens one to eight : stigmas capitate. 



[Nut enclosed m the perianth segments : cotyledons flat . . 



' POLYGONUM. 



\ Nut longer than the perianth : cotyledons plaited .... 



[ FAGOPYRUM. 



POLYGONUM, F.B.I. 119 III. 



Knot-grass, Persicaria, etc. 



Herbs or undershrubs of various habit, with alternate 



leaves, swollen nodes, and usually large tubular stipules. 



Flowers small in clusters at the axils and nodes of the 



