106 POLYGONS^ 



The stem is from one to three feet high, and often much branched. It is a 

 local species, but occurs in many wet places in Yorkshire and southwards 

 from it. The flowers may be found in August and September. 



14. Small Creeping Persicaria (P. vivmis). — Spikes erect, thread- 

 like, slender, lax ; perianths with glands at the base only ; nut small, com- 

 pressed, black, and shining ; leaves linear-lanceolate, flat, very shortly stalked, 

 fringed, without glands ; annual. This also is a local plant, occurring on wet 

 gi'avelly commons in parts of England, and rarely in Scotland and Ireland. 

 It is nearly allied to the next species, but is much smaller, and generally 

 prostrate and rooting at the base, though in some specimens it is erect. In 

 the latter case it has narrower leaves than in the ordinary form. It has 

 upright spikes, and its leaves are always more slender than in the Biting 

 Persicaria. 



15. Biting Persicaria, or Water Pepper (P. hydrdpiper). — Flowers in 

 loose drooping spikes, rarely erect ; perianth glandular ; nut large, compressed, 

 opaque, and dotted ; leaves lanceolate, waved ; annual. This is an abundant 

 plant in ditches, and on spots where water has once stood. Its drooping, slender 

 spikes of flowers expand during August and September, and are of a pale, 

 reddish-green colour ; sometimes, as they grow older, rising erect. The 

 juice of this plant is hot and acrid, but not unpleasant to the taste, and is 

 used by country people to cure pimples on the tongue ; the remedy, however, 

 would appear to be as bad as the complaint, for it raises blisters on a delicate 

 skin. The plant was formerly held in great repute, both in this and other 

 countries, for its medicinal properties, but it is rarely used now except by 

 village doctresses, by whom the leaves are sometimes powdered and laid 

 upon the skin, to remove the blackness caused by bruises. A stimulant 

 plaister made of the plant is also applied instead of a mustard poultice ; 

 and country people use the leaves as a cure for toothache. The Eastern 

 Persicaria of our gardens is said by Tournefort to have been cultivated in 

 Asia for similar purposes. The acridity of our native plant renders it dis- 

 agreeable to all our domestic animals, and it is said to prove so obnoxious to 

 insects, that if gathered while in full bloom and laid in wardrobes, it will 

 preserve clothing from the attacks of moths ; while, in Germany, it is com- 

 monly placed in houses to prevent the annoyance of fleas. Bulliard mentions 

 that the seeds have in country places in France been used as a substitute for 

 pepper. The plant loses much of its acrimony in drying. It will dye wool 

 of a good yellow colour. 



Most of our species of Polygonum thrive in damp soils ; and Sir T. L. 

 Murray remax^ks of P. junceum, so common in Australia, that he found it an 

 infallible guide to the vicinity of a river, when growing, as it commonly does, 

 in large belts on the grassy plains. Sir Joseph Hooker, too, when in the 

 Himalayas, remarks the abundance of another species on the flats by the 

 riverside. P. cynwsum, which is a common plant in these regions, affords in 

 its leaves an excellent substitute for spinach. The natives call it PuUop-hi ; 

 and this traveller records that he has reason to remember its name with 

 gratitude, for he and his party subsisted for five days almost wholly on this 

 plant, though they added to their diet a few nettles, and a small quantity of 

 Sikkim meal. 



