102 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[PLare 38.] 
38. Polygonum littorale Link. 
Polygonum littorale Vink in Sehrad. Journ. 1: 54 (1799); Persoon, Syn. l + 439% 
Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 98. 
Polygonum salsuginosum Wallroth, Linnaea, 14: 568 (1840). 
Polygonum aviculare var. littorale Martens & Koch, Deutsche Fl. 3:59 (1851). 
Polygonum crassinerve Cesati, Stirp. Ital. fas 2 (1840). 
Annual or perennial, glabrous, bright green, often glaucous. Stem prostrate, 5-12 
dm. long, diffusely branched from the woody base and throughout, conspicuously ridged, 
internodes often very short, especially at the ends or bases of branches, the whole plant 
sometimes dwarfed and reduced to a small, erect form less than 1 dm. long and simple or 
sparingly branched; leaves oblong, oblong-lanceolate or oblanceolate, .4—2 cm. long, .1-.6 
em. broad, usually obtuse or sometimes acutish, generally acuminate at the base, crowded 
or distant, conspicuously nerved, often crisped, short-petioled; petioles articulated at their 
junction with the ocreae; ocreae oblique, 4-5 mm. long, two-parted and silvery when 
young, at length lacerate and brownish; inflorescence axillary, consisting of clusters with 
from two to six flowers; calyx mostly green, five-parted to below the middle, the seg- 
ments oblong, obtuse, with white borders or sometimes red; stamens eight, included; 
style .2 mm. long, three-parted to the base, included; achene triquetrous, 2—2.5 mm. long, 
broadly ovoid, usually somewhat constricted and often conspicuously so below the sum- 
mit, enlarged and rounded at the base, dark brown, more or less granular, mostly dull, 
sometimes shining. 
From New Brunswick to British Columbia southward to Virginia, Illinois, Kansas 
and California. Also in Europe. 
Polygonum littorale Sitchense Small. 
Polygonum aviculare vay. latifolium Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 237 (1803), according 
to Bongard, but doubtful. 
Polygonum buxcifolium Nuttall; Bongard, Veg. Ins. Sitcha, 161 (1831), not Bieb. 
Polygonum aviculare var. buxifolium Ledebour, Fl. Ross. 8: 532 (1847-1849). 
Stem stout; leaves linear-oblong, obtuse at the apex, attenuate at the base, subsessile, 
somewhat nerved; flowers one to two ata node; stamens five; achene triquetrous, some- 
what exceeding the calyx, rather shining but somewhat granular. 
Island of Sitcha. 
