PERSIC ARIA TRIBE 105 



so far as to produce flower or seed, the individuals must be the same which 

 were formerly suspended in the water. It is quite the prettiest of our wild 

 species of Polygonum. The French call it Le Persicaire ; the G-ermans, 

 FJohkraut : the Dutch, Persenkrvid ; the Italians and Spaniards, Persicaria ; 

 and the Russians, Potschednaja irawa. According to Coste and Willemet, 

 the roots in their properties resemble sarsaparilla, and are by the herbalists 

 of Nancy substituted for that drug. These authors add that the apothecaries 

 and druggists of Lorraine prefer them to the true sarsaparilla. 



10. Spotted Persicaria (P. 'persiidria). — Flowers in compact, egg- 

 shaped, oblong, cyliudrical, erect spikes, with 2 — 3 styles, and 5 — 8 stamens ; 

 flower-stalks nearly smooth; leaves lanceolate, neai-ly sessile, smooth; perianth 

 glandular • nut flattened and swollen at one side, scarcely covered by the 

 perianth ; stipules loose, strongly fringed ; annual. This plant is very 

 common in moist hedges, and on lands on which moisture has stood. Its 

 leaves are rather large and of a deep green, having usually a dark, blackish, 

 or purplish spot about the middle. This mark is believed by the Highlanders 

 to have originated in a drop of blood which fell from the cross at the time 

 of the crucifixion, and which is supposed to have since been perpetuated on 

 every leaf of the plant. This species bears in July and August numerous 

 spikes of greenish or pinkish white colour, on a stem about one or two feet 

 high ; it often occurs as a weed in damp gardens. 



11. Pale-flowered Persicaria (P. lapathifdliuhi). — Flowers in dense, 

 oblong, cylindrical spikes ; flower-stalks and perianth glandular and rough ; 

 nut flattened, smooth, shining, concave on both sides ; leaves shortly stalked, 

 egg-shaped, and lanceolate ; lower stipules not fringed, upper ones shortly 

 fringed ; annual. The Pale-flowered Persicaria is common in waste places 

 and damp fields, bearing its pale whitish or reddish green flowers in July 

 and August. The stem is a foot or a foot and a half high, with swollen 

 joints, and is sometimes spotted. This is a very variable species, its leaves 

 being often smooth, but in some specimens Avhite with short silky down, 

 and sometimes with a black blotch alDOve. The spikes are lateral or 

 terminal, and the blossoms very crowded ; the sepals are shorter than the 

 fruit. 



12. Slender-headed Persicaria {P. Id.rum). — Flowers usually in_ 

 elongated slender spikes, with 2 stjdes and 6 stamens ; flower-stalks and 

 perianths glandular and rough ; leaves lanceolate, slightly waved, tapering 

 at both ends, glandular beneath ; stipules lax, shortly fringed ; annual. This 

 species occurs on damp gravelly places in several parts of England. Its stem 

 is often prostrate, and its spikes are usually slender and interrupted, but 

 sometimes short and continuous, with leaves white and woolly beneath. The 

 flowers appear in July and August, and the sepals are larger than the fruit. 

 This is regarded by some authors as a sub-species of P. lapathifoliinn ; and it 

 is the P. huuiii of Babington. 



13. Lax-flowered Persicaria (P. mite). — Spikes erect, thread-like, 

 and interrupted ; leaves lanceolate, slightly wavy ; stipules hairy and fringed ; 

 perianth without glands ; nut large, black, compressed, swollen on one side, 

 wrinkled, shining ; annual. This species has lax flowering spikes, which are 

 thicker at the upper than at the lower part, and OKQ. white or red in colour. 



III. -14 



