2. RuMBx.] 111. POLYGONACE^. 



2. R. nigricans, Hook. f. Black dock. 



An erect less robust annual 6-18" high with angled and grooved 

 stems, more or less narrowly panduriform leaves 6-8" by 1-1*5" with 

 cordate base and leafy or leafless rigid divaricate flowering branches. 

 Fruiting tepals, inner -16" lanceolate venose, densely crowded in 

 globose distant or confluent whorls turning black when dry, with very 

 large oblong dark tubercles and lanceolate tips, margins very narrow 

 entire or often with 1-2 short straight teeth or spines. Pedicels 

 short. 



Purneah, Cal. Jlerh. ! Behar, J.B.H. ! Fl. r.s. 



Lower leaves oblong, 6-8" by \-Vo". Tepals more reticulate than in marifimug 

 And teeth less fine ; tuloercles occupy two-thirds to three-quarters of whole length 

 ■of tepal. 



3. R. dentatus, L. 



A stout erect herb 2-3 ft. high with habit of nigricaiis, angled and 

 ridged stems and oblong obtuse leaves 2-4" often contracted above 

 the rounded or cordate base, or the upper ones oblanceolate or linear, 

 often waved or crisped and sometimes papillose beneath. Fruiting 

 tepals •17"-'2" long triangular, acute or obtuse, with broad closely 

 reticulate wings and strong unequal spreading teeth, tubercle large 

 oblong smooth. 



BehdY, Ktu-zl Banks of Soane and Ganges, J'.D.iT, ! Palamau, T^^oorf! Banks 

 of the Mahanadi, Angul ! Probably in all districts. Fl,, Fr. h.s. 



The whorls in my specimens are dense and almost confluent, brown when dry. 

 Panicle not much branched, somewhat leafy. Pedicels about as long as the fruiting 

 tepals with articulation near the base. Reticulation of tepals much raised leaving 

 minute areoles between. Tubercle occupies less than half to two-thirds length of 

 tepals, which have broad uncovered margins. Pedicels much thickened beneath 

 the fruit. 



4. R. vesicarius, L. Palak, Palang-sag, if. ; Delali, Ferw. (Purneah); 



Chuka-palang, Beng. ; Bladder Dock. 



A pale green annual 6-12" high, dichotomously branched from the 

 root and rather fleshy. Leaves long-petioled elliptic -ovate, broadly 

 ovate or oblong, 1-3" long, 3-5-nerved from the cuneate, cordate or 

 hastate base. Flowers mostly geminate in short terminal and leaf- 

 opposed racemes only 1-1 -5" long, polygamous (2-sexual according 

 to Roxburgh) on slender pedicels. Inner fruiting tepals large, not 

 tubercled orbicular •4--5" diam. very membranous and reticulate, 

 white or pink, 2-lobed each end, without teeth or marginal nerve. 



Cultivated. Bettiah, Hiei-ont/mus ! Purneah, Burkill ! Manbhum, Camp. ! 

 Used as a mg as well as medicinally. Native of the Punjab hills. 



3. ANTIGONON, Endl. 



Climbers with the branchlets and rhachis of the inflorescence often 

 passing into tendrils. Leaves with amplexicaul petioles and small 

 stipules, often reduced to a stipulary line. Flowers mod. -sized, 

 coloured pink, white or red in small fasicles which, owing to the 

 reduction of the leaves on the flowering shoots to small bracts, appear 

 in more or less zigzag racemes and panicles. Pedicels articulate. 



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