106 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[Puare 40.] 
40. Polygonum Bellardi Allioni. 
Polygonum Bellardi Alioni, Fl. Pedem. 2: 205. t. 90. f. 2 (1785); Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 
2: 639; Persoon, Syn. 1: 489; Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 98. 
Annual, glabrous, dingy-green or straw-colored. Stem erect or spreading and ascend- 
ing, 2-) dm. long, wiry, simple or much branched, ridged; leaves varying from oblong- 
lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, sometimes oblanceolate, .5-4 em. long, .1-.9 em. broad, 
acute, conspicuously nerved beneath, acuminate at the base, never crowded, short-petioled ; 
petiole articulated at its junction with the ocrea; ocreae oblique, 5-7 mm. long, two-parted 
or slightly lacerate when young, becoming much lacerate and brown with age; inflores- 
cence axillary, the clusters with two or three flowers; pedicels slender, about 3 mm. long; 
calyx green, 2 mm. long, five-parted to below the middle, the segments oblong, obtusish 
with a white border; stamens eight, included; style .1-2 mm. long, three-parted to the 
base, included or somewhat exserted at maturity; achene triquetrous, 2-2.5 mm. long, 
varying from ovoid to oblong-ovoid, dark-brown, pointed at both ends, granular and 
rather dull. 
In waste places, Washington, D.C. Adventive from western Asia or eastern Europe. 
