114 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[Pirate 44.] 
44. Polygonum ramosissimum Michaux. 
Polygonum ramosissimum Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 237 (1803); Willdenow, Sp. PI. 
2: 450; Persoon, Syn. 1: 439; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 269; Muhlenberg, Cat. 41; Eaton, 
Man. 370; Sprengel, Syst. 2: 260; Meisner, Monog. 91 and in DC. Prodr. 14:97; A. 
Gray, Man. 388; Wood, Am. Bot. and FI. 283; Coulter, Man. Bot. Rocky Mt. Reg. 319; 
Greene, Fl. Francis. 134. 
Polygonum aviculare var. erectum S. Watson, Bot. King’s Exp. 315 (1871), not 
Meisner. 
Polygonum erectum S. Watson, Bot. Calif. 2: 11 (1880), not Linnaeus. 
Annual, glabrous, somewhat scurfy, more or less suffruticose, of a bright green or 
yellowish green color, woody. Stem erect or ascending, 1-3 dm. long, somewhat virgate, 
nearly simple or diffusely branched, conspicuously ridged; branches ascending or spread- 
ing; leaves lanceolate, oblong or linear-oblong, .7-4 em. long, .1—.8 em. brdad, acuminate 
at both ends or acute at apex, short-petioled, persistent, joined to the ocreae by conspicu- 
ous articulations, nerves either prominent or indistinct on the lower surface; ocreae fun- 
nelform, oblique, .5-1.5 em. long, two-parted when young, very early becoming lacerate, 
silvery, at length turning brown; inflorescence axillary, the clusters several-flowered ; 
pedicels 1.5-2 mm. long; calyx greenish or yellowish, about 3 mm. long, five-parted or 
six-parted to near the base, the segments narrowly oblong; stamens six or fewer, some- 
times only three, included; style .1 mm. long, three-parted to the base, included; achene 
triquetrous, 8 mm. long, ovoid, pointed, mostly included or rarely slightly protruding 
beyond the calyx, black, somewhat granular and not shining. 
From the Northwest Territory south to California, New Mexico, Texas and Illinois; 
also along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to New Jersey. 
Polygonum ramosissimum prolificum Small. 
Polygonum ramosissimum prolificum Small, Bull. Torr. Club, 21: 171 (1894). 
Conspicuously bushy and much branched; stem erect or nearly so, 6-10 dm. long, 
rather stout and woody, internodes short, 1-3 cm. long; nodes proliferous, producing 
two or more branches; leaves variable in size and narrower than those of the species; 
flowers and achenes more numerous than in the normal form. 
Nebraska and Kansas; also on the coast of Maine. 
