POLYGONACE^.. 73 



;ire certainly never large fbvea-likc glands as on the perianth P. 

 I lydropiper. 



Small Persicaria. 



Fi'ciicli, Iienouee fltiefrte. Gci'man, Kleiner Kndtcn'ch, 



SPECIES IX.— POLYGONUM MITE. Sch-anJc. 



PrATE MCCXXXVI. 



milof, Fl. Gall, et Gevm. Exsicc. No. 10G4. 



P. dabluni, Sfeiu, Gren. & Goth: Fl. de Fr. Vol. III. p. 48. 



Annual. Stem erect, sometimes geniculate and rooting at the very 

 base, slightly swollen at the nodes, branched. Leaves subsessile, 

 elliptical or lanceolate-elliptical. Ochrea3 rather loose, all ciliated 

 with long and short weak bristles. Spikes solitary (rarely in pairs) 

 at the extremity of the stem and branches, racemose or racemoso- 

 paniculate, long, slender, lax, interrupted and leafy at the base, 

 contiguous and leafless at the apex (rarely wholly contiguous and 

 leafless), straight, erect or ascending. Pedicels about as long as 

 the nut, articulated immediately below the perianth, without glands. 

 Perianth coloured, without glands or prominent veins. Stamens 5, 

 rarely 6. Styles 2 or 3, combined half-way up. Nut as long as the 

 perianth; that of the 2-styled flowers roundish-oval, plano-convex, 

 faintly shagreened, shining ; those of the 3-styled flowers bluntly 

 trigonous, compressed. Leaves and ochrea3 without superficial glands. 

 Plant insipid. 



In wet places, especially by the sides of rivers ; local, but probably 

 often passed over as P. Persicaria. It is common in Surrey by the 

 Thames and its tributaries, and it certainly occurs in Middlesex, 

 Essex, Cambridge, Hants, Northampton, and Yorkshire. It appears 

 to be absent from both Scotland and Ireland. 



England. Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Stem 1 to 2 feet high, and with more virgate branches than in any 

 of the preceding species of the section Persicaria. Leaves, inclusive 

 of the very short petiole, 2 to 4 inches long, serrulated with ratlier 

 longer bristles than in P. minus and P. Hydropiper. Ochrea? mem- 

 branous, Avhite, ciliated in the same manner as the two preceding 

 species, the floral ones often purj:)lish. Spikes thicker than in P. minus 

 and P. Hydropiper, 1 to 4 inches long; in the latter case with the lower 

 whorls much separated, and 1 or 2 of them having a leaf at the base. 

 Perianth i inch long, pale rose or white, often tinged with green. 

 Nut i inch long, appearing shagreened under a lens, but distinctly 



VOL. VIII. L 



