POLYGON ACE^E. 75 



rather lax, sometimes slightly drooping. Pedicels as long as the nut. 

 Plant usually much larger than in var. a. 



Var. a in damp places and by the sides of ditches, in meadows and 

 cultivated ground. Very common, and generally distributed. Var. 3 

 rare. In cultivated ground and wet places. I have only seen it from 

 Battersea Fields, and elsewhere about tlie neighbourhood of London. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Summer, Autumn. 



Var. a has the stem 9 inches to 2 feet high, generally red, more 

 rarely spotted. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, attenuated at each end, 

 but sometimes rather more towards the apex than the base. Spikes 

 ^ to 1} inch long, the terminal ones stalked, often in pairs of unequal 

 length, the axillary ones stalked or sessile, solitary. Perianth about 

 /r inch long, bright rose, more rarely pure white. Nut ^ inch long, 

 appearing punctured only under a strong lens, black, very shining, 

 the greater number of nuts compressed, but always a few with 3 blunt 

 edges. Leaves green, generally with a black blotch in the middle of 

 the upper surface, usually minutely pubescent beneath, sometimes 

 quite hoary Avith short cottony hairs. Pedicels sometimes slightly 

 hairy, but almost always destitute of glands. Flowers of a brighter 

 red or purer white than any of the other species of the section Persi- 

 caria, except P. amphibium, which has the rose colour much paler. 

 The dense continuous spikes distinguish this from the P. mite, which 

 in other respects it resembles. 



Var. 3 is a much larger plant, so like some of the varieties of 

 P. lapathifolium that it is only by observing the absence of conspicuous 

 glands on the peduncles, perianth, and leaves, and the plano-convex nuts, 

 that it can be distinguished from the latter. Spikes 1 to 2 inches long, 

 lax. The stem is much more enlarged at the nodes than in var. a ; 

 the ochrea3 shorter and wider ; the leaves broader in proportion, some- 

 times 6 inches long. Perianth often dull pink or flesh colour, though 

 sometimes as bright as that of the more common form. 



This appears to be the P. nodosum of Persoon and Meisner, and all 

 those botanists who refer that name to a plant allied to P. Persicaria 

 rather than to P. lapathifolium. 



Spotted Persicaria. 

 French, Benouee persiccdre. German, Gemeiner Knoterich. 



SPECIES XL-POL YGONUM LAPATHIFOLIUM. Ll>m. 



Plates MCCXXXIX. MCCXL. 



Annual. Stem erect or ascending, sometimes geniculate and rooting 

 at the very base, greatly swollen and branched. Leaves lanceolate or 

 elliptical-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, shortly stalked. Ochreas rather 

 loose ; the lower ones not ciliated, the upper ones generally fringed 



