] 
PoLyGonvm.] POLYGONACEZ. ; 31 
Inflorescence capitate, compressed :— 
Heads with an involucral leaf at the 
base oi ‘ : : 7 . 138. P. alatum. 
Heads without an involucral leaf at the 
base. d 2 L : . 14. P. capitatum. 
1. P. plebejum, Rf. Br. Prod. 420; F. B. I. v, 27: Watt EB. D.; 
Collett Fl. Siml. 421 ; Gage in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 383; Prain 
Beng. Pl. 885 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 512. P. aviculare, Don Prod. 
72 (not of Linn.). P. herniarioides, Del. ; Royle Ill. 313. 
A prostrate diffusely branched herb, often with a woody rootstock ; 
branches stout or slender, terete, striate, glabrous ; lower internodes 
often longer than the leaves, upper shorter or very short. Leaves 
sessile or shortly stalked, 4-§ in. long, oblong or linear or obovate ; 
stipules hyaline, rather short, lacerate to the middle and fimbriate, 
nerves usually obscure. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2-3-nate, 
sessile or nearly so. Pertanth pink, about y in. long, divided nearly 
to the base ; segments short, broad, rounded or the 2 outer ones 
acute. Nutlets 3-gonous, shining. 
Throughout Trop. India, ascending to 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya from 
Bhutan to Kashmir, but not in Ceylon. BeyondIndia it extends to 
Afghanistan, Egypt, Trop. and 8. Africa, Madagascar, Java, Philip- 
pines,and Australia. Regarding this very variable species Sir Joseph 
Hooker remarks that, if he was right in bringing all the ten varieties 
(or forms) described by him in the Fl. Brit. India under one species, 
this is a far more protean plant than P. aviculare with which it is 
generally compared, but from which it differs entirely in habit, in 
the usually few-nerved stipules and in the rhombic smooth nutlet. 
P. aviculare is abundant on the W. Himalaya and in W. Tibet. 
Major Gage, after a careful and detailed examination of the many 
specimens included in the Calcutta Herbarium, as forms or varieties 
oi P. plebejum, enumerates 8 varieties in his census. At the same 
time he is very much inclined to regard them as representing 4 dis- 
tinct species, and that they might be grouped as follows :— 
plebejum (proper). ms indica. 
1 ) eftusa. ? brevifolia. 
elegans. Ill. Griffitbii. 
micranthema. IV. polyneura. 
