66 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[Puate 20.] 
20. Polygonum Persicaria Linnaeus. 
Polygonum Persicaria Linnaeus, Sp. Pl 361 (1753); Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 2: 638; 
Walter, Fl. Car. 131; Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 239; Persoon, Syn. 1: 440; Bigelow, 
Fl. Bost. 94; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 271; Muhlenberg, Cat. 40; Barton, Comp. Fl. Phil. 
187; Eaton, Man. 371: Torrey, Fl. 1: 405, Comp. 172; Sprengel, Syst. 257; Meisner, 
Monog. 68, in Mart. FL Bras. 5: 16, in DC. Prodr. 14: 117; Beck, Bot. 302; Darling- 
ton, Florula Cest. 48, Fl. Cest. 249; Hooker, FI. Bor. ie 2: 132; Eaton & Wright, N. 
A. Bot. Ed. 8, 368; A. Gray, Man. 387; Wood, Cl. Bk. Ed. 41, 474, Am. Bot. & FL 
283; Gay, Fl. Chil. 5: 266; Chapman, Fl. 8. States, 389; 5S. Watson, Bot. Calif. 2: 14; 
Greene, Fl. Francis. 136, Man. Bay Reg. Bot. 42. 
Polygonum Persicaria yar. vernicosum Chamisso & Schlechtendal, Linnaea, 3: 43 
(1828), Gay, Fl. Chil. 5: 266. 
Polygonum Persicaria var. vulgare Meisner, Monog. 68 (1826). 
Annual, smooth or puberulent. Stem erect or sometimes spreading, 2-8 dm. long, 
simple or branched either at the base or above or throughout; leaves varying from lan- 
ceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2-18 em. long, 3-3.5 em. broad, acuminate at both ends, en- 
tire or sometimes eroded, often somewhat ciliate, conspicuously punctate, nearly smooth 
except the more or less hispid midrib and nerves, short-petioled or subsessile, generally 
with a dark triangular or lunar spot in the middle; ocreae cylindric or funnelform, 1-1.5 
em. long, nearly smooth or with short hairs on the ridges, usually conspicuously fringed 
with short bristles; inflorescence paniculate, more or less compound, the ultimate divi- 
sions harrow spicate racemes; racemes oblong or ovoid, 1-3 em. long, .5-1 em. thick, 
mostly erect, densely flowered; ocreolae funnelform, 1.5-2 mm. long, oblique, smooth or 
rearly so, fringed with short bristles; pedicels 1-2 mm. long; calyx about 1.5 mm. long, 
varying from pink to dark purple or sometimes red or greenish, five-cleft to the middle, 
the segments obtuse; stamens generally six, included; style two or three-parted to below 
the middle or near the base, 1-2 mm. long; achenes lenticular, biconvex, often gibbous 
or triquetrous, 2-2.5 min. long, broadly ovoid, pointed, black, smooth and shining. 
Throughout temperate and tropical North and South America. Naturalized from 
Europe. 
