136 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[PLATE 55.] 
55. Polygonum polygaloides Meisner. 
Polygonum polygaloides Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 101 (1856); 8. Watson, Bot. 
Calif. 2: 12. 
Annual, slender, glabrous, light green or straw-colored. Stem erect, 1-2 dm. long, 
simple or more or less corymbosely branched, slightly flexuous, obscurely four-angled ; 
leaves linear or narrowly linear, .5-3 em. long, .1-2 mm. broad, acute, rather strict, artic- 
ulated to the ocreae; ocreae funnelform, 3-5 mm. long, oblique, at first two-parted, soon 
lacerate; inflorescence axillary, the clusters several-flowered, confined to the ends of the 
branches, nearly contiguous and forming a terminal raceme; bracts usually oblong, 
obtuse, surrounded with scarious wings, more or less imbricated; pedicels 2-2.5 mm. 
long; calyx 2 mm. long, five-parted to near the base, white or pinkish, the segments 
lanceolate with a dark rib, the outer ones longer than the inner; stamens eight, in- 
cluded; style three-parted to below the middle, included; achene triquetrous, ovoid, 
1-1.5 mm. long. 
Washington and Oregon to Montana. 
