420 POLYGONACE^ 



eaten in Cumberland under the name of Easter Man Giants^ 

 which perhaps means Easter eating, from the French mangeant. — 

 Fl. June — September. Perennial. 



14. P. viviparum (Viviparous Bistort, Alpine Bistort). — A 

 slender plant, 6 — 8 in. high, with a slender rhizome ; a simple, 

 erect stem ; leaves linear-lanceolate, with their margins rolled back ; 

 ■flowers pink, in a slender, loose, blunt spike, which has small red 

 bulbils in its lower part in place of flowers. — Mountain pastures, 

 especially in the Scottish Highlands. — Fl. June — July. Pe- 

 rennial. 



*2. Fagopyrum (Buckwheat), a genus differing from Poly- 

 gonum mainly in the embryo, which is in the centre or axis of the 

 seed, and has large, leaf-like, plaited cotyledons, is only represented 

 in England by one species, the Common Buckwheat {F. escu- 

 lentuni), probably a native of Central Asia, and not indigenous in 

 Britain. It has erect, branched stems, about a foot high ; cordate- 

 sagittate, acute leaves ; and pinkish flowers in spreading panicles. — 

 Sown as food for pheasants. — Fl. July, August. Annual. 



3. OxYRiA (Mountain Sorrel), a genus containing only the one 

 species 0. digyna, a plant resembling the Common Sorrel (Rumex 

 Acetosa) in habit, but shorter and stouter. It grows 8 — 10 in. 

 high, and is smooth and rather fleshy. The leaves are all radical and 

 kidney-shaped, with long stalks ; and the flowers are green, and 

 grow in clustered spikes. The perianth is deeply 4-cleft, the 

 segments in 2 rows, the inner larger and persistent ; stamens 6, 

 with versatile anthers ; styles 2 ; fruit a flattened nut with a 

 broad, membranous wing. — Damp places near the summits of 

 high mountains in the north ; not uncommon. (Name from the 

 Greek oxiis, sharp, from the pleasantly acid flavour of the stem 

 and leaves.) — Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



4. Rumex (Dock, Sorrel). — Herbaceous plants with a rhizome ; 

 usually grooved stems ; scattered leaves with tubular stipules ; 

 flowers in racemes or panicles of whorls ; perianth deeply 6-cleft, 

 the 3 inner segments enlarging in the fruit stage ; stamens 6, with 

 basifixed anthers ; styles 3 ; stigmas feathery, wind-pollinated ; 

 fruit a triangular nut, covered by the enlarged inner perianth- 

 segments ; embryo lateral. (Name, the old Latin name of the 

 plant.) 



* Insipid plants (Docks)^ with leaves not hastate, and perfect 



flowers 

 The species in this group hybridise freely, thus adding to the 

 difficulty of discriminating between them. 



