104 POLYGONE^ 



liked by bees, and the bee-keepers of Brabant rear the Buckwheat near their 

 hives. The plant yields a good quantity of spirit, and is much used in the 

 manufacture of cordials and liqueurs by the distillers in some parts of 

 Germaiiy. The leaves and stems are eaten by cattle, sheep, and horses. 



7. Climbing Buckwheat (P. ronrulvulus). — Leaves heart-shaped and 

 arrow-shaped ; stem twining, angular ; segments of the perianth bluntly 

 keeled, rarely winged ; fruit marked with lines, with rough points ; annual. 

 This is a frequent and very troublesome plant of the cornfield. Its long 

 stems wind round the stalks of the wheat or other plant, so twisting together 

 the stalks and foliage into one mass, as to prevent further growth, or to 

 bear all down by the weight. Besides this injury, it occupies a large portion 

 of the soil which the agriculturist has prepared at a great cost and labour 

 for the nutriment of the grain, and it sows a prolific crop for the next spring 

 weeding. Its flowers appear in July and August. They grow in axillary 

 spikes, about four together, and are of a greenish-white colour. There is a 

 variety {pseudo-dumetonim) with the outer segments of the perianth winged. 



8. Copse Buckwheat (P. dumet&rum). — Leaves heart-shaped and 

 arrow-shaped ; stem twining, marked w4th lines ; segments of the perianth 

 with a membranous wing ; fruit quite smooth and shining on the surface ; 

 annual. This is so nearly allied to the winged form of the last species, that 

 it may probably be but a variety. It is, however, generally of a far more 

 luxuriant habit, and has shining seeds. It grows among bushes in the south 

 of England ; but it is a rare plant, and one that is seldom found for more 

 than a year or two on the same spot. 



9. Amphibious Persicaria (P. ampMhium). — Flowers in a dense egg- 

 shaped spike, M'ith 2 styles and 6 stamens ; leaves egg-shaped, or egg-shaped 

 and lanceolate ; or narrowly lanceolate, stalked, rough at the margins ; nut 

 smooth and shining ; stipules membranous, narrow ; root creeping and 

 perennial. This is a very frequent and showy aquatic plant, growing some- 

 times in ditches or pools, or on their moist boggy margins. It assumes such 

 difierent forms, according to its place of growth, that its A'arieties might be 

 taken for distinct species. In one variety, growing in the water, and called 

 aqvaficum, the leaves are broad and floating, and the spikes oblong; while 

 in the variety called terrestre the stems are about a foot high, and the leaves 

 narrow and rough. Both forms of the plant bear very handsome flowers, 

 more like those of our garden Persicaria (P. orientale) than those of any other 

 of our wild species. The blossoms appear from July to September ; and the 

 more luxuriant form of the plant has stems two or three feet long, which are 

 supported in the water by their long, stalked, floating leaves. 



This plant is often very troublesome to those who attempt the draining 

 of moist lands. Its stems run along the soft soil at the bottom of the water, 

 sending out roots at every joint, and they require the attention of the 

 drainer for two or three years ; for, if suff'ered to remain undisturbed for a 

 single season, the alluvial earth will be overrun by the Persicaria. Mr. 

 Loudon, who remarks that no plant, except the Horsetail, is more trouble- 

 some on drained lands, says, that many tracts in Scotland, which have been 

 recovered from rivers and estuaries for an unknown series of years, still 

 abound with this plant, and, as under such circumstances it never advances 



