50 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[Pate 12.] 
12. Polygonum hispidum Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth. 
Polygonum hispidum Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Noy. Gen. 2: 178 (1817); 
Sprengel, Syst. 2: 259; Meisner, Monog. 80, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5: 12. t. 2 and in DC. 
Prodr. 14: 122. 
Perennial, stout and leafy, more or less glutinous. Stem erect or spreading, 3-10 
dm. long, simple or sparingly branched, hispid and glandular; leaves varying from-ovate 
to broadly lanceolate, 8-22 cm. long, 2-8 cm. broad, acuminate, glandular, base con- 
spicuously decurrent on the petiole, glabrous or hispidulous on and about the midrib 
and nerves; petiole .56-1.5 em. long, hispid or glandular; ocreae cylindric, 1-5 cm. long, 
large, base more or less contiguous, expanded into a patent rim at the summit, very 
hispid, fringed with spreading bristles; inflorescence paniculate, rather simple, the ulti- 
mate divisions ending in spicate racemes; racemes linear-oblong, 2-10 cm. long, erect, 
2 
continuous, densely flowered, reddish; ocreolae funnelform, 3 mm. long, 
oblique, spread- 
ing at the summit, fringed with short bristles; pedicels about 3 mm. long; calyx white or ° 
rose-purple, 4.5 mm. long, five-parted to below the middle; stamens five; style 3 mm. 
long, two-parted to below the middle, exserted; achene lenticular, 4.5 mm. long, orbicular- 
obovoid or orbicular-oblong, sometimes abruptly pointed and broader than high, slightly 
biconcave, black, smooth and shining. 
The West Indies, Central America and northern and eastern South America as far 
south as Paraguay. 
