MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 17 
POLYGONUM Linnaeus. 
Potyconum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 359 (1753). Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 2: 657; Walter, FI. 
Car. 131; Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 2: 440; Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 257; Persoon, Syn. 1: 
439; Muhlenberg, Cat. 40; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 269; Elliott, Bot. 8. C. and Ga. 1: 453; 
Sprengel, Syst. 1: 255; Barton, Comp. Fl. Phila. 1: 186; Torrey, Fl. 400, Comp. 171, 
Fl. N. Y. 2: 145; Beck, Bot. 300; Meisner, Monog. 1, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5: 11, in DC. 
Prodr. 14: 83; Darlington, Florula Cest. 48, Fl. Cest. 247; Eaton & Wright, N. A. Bot. 
367; A. Gray, Man. 386; Wood, Cl. Bk. Ed. 41, 473, Am. Bot. and Fl. 282; Chapman, 
Fl. 5S. States, 388; Darby, Bot. 8. States, 488; 8. Watson, Bot. Calif. 2:10; Behr, FL 
San Fr. 275; Greene, Fl. Francis. 132, Man. Bay. Reg. Bot. 40. 
Herbaceous, suffrutescent or suffruticose, glabrous, pubescent, glandular or scurfy, 
jointed plants, annual or perennial by a woody or fleshy rootstock or by creeping stems, 
terrestrial, amphibious or aquatic. Stem erect, ascending or prostrate, climbing, twin- 
ing or floating, fleshy, herbaceous or woody, sometimes emersed or immersed, chan- 
neled or ridged, strict or flexuous, more or less enlarged at the nodes. Leaves alternate, 
entire, membranous, herbaceous, coriaceous or fleshy, rarely keeled, rather distant, 
2 
mostly arranged in a 5 or 2 spiral, prominently or obscurely nerved, sometimes glaucous, 
often glandular-punctate, continuous with or articulated to the ocreae, sometimes re- 
duced to foliaceous bracts in and about the inflorescence, with stipules in the form of 
ocreae. Ocreae cylindric or funnel-form, membranous, hyaline, rarely herbaceous, trun- 
cate or oblique at the summit, often two-parted and at length lacerate, naked, ciliate or 
fringed with bristles, occasionally fringed at the base; inflorescence axillary and terminal, 
consisting of clusters, racemes, or spicate racemes, either solitary, geminate, or paniculate, 
or rarely of narrow spikes, in which case the flowers are solitary. Flowers subtended by 
ocreae or ocreolae; pedicels more or less fascicled, short and stout or long and slender, 
articulated at the base of the calyx, near the middle or near the base, straight and 
erect or strongly deflexed. Calyx somewhat herbaceous or membranous, variously col- 
ored, persistent, rarely remaining nearly unchanged in fruit, but mostly developing so 
that it invests the achene, often glandular-punctate, four to six-cleft or four to six-parted, 
usually five-cleft or five-parted, the segments nearly equal or the outer ones larger, the 
latter often developing keels or conspicuous wings. Stamens varying from three to nine, 
usually five or eight, variously disposed on the base of the calyx, the filaments filiform 
