142 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
[PLATE 58. ] 
58. Polygonum Californicum Meisner. 
Polygonum Californicum Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 100 (1856); Bentham, PI. 
Hartw. 334; S. Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. 14: 295, Bot. Calif. 2:13; Behr, Fl. San Fr. 
275; Greene, Fl. Francis. 135, Man. Bay Reg. Bot. 41. 
Annual, glabrous, very slender and wiry. Stem erect, .8-2 dm. long, flexuous, 
nearly simple or branched throughout, smooth and shining, sometimes sparingly scurfy, 
reddish, somewhat four-angled, the branches spreading or ascending; leaves narrowly 
linear or nearly filiform, 1-3 em. long, subulate-tipped, with two ribs developed along 
each margin parallel to the midrib, not articulated to the ocreae, the upper reduced to 
bracts; ocreae funnelform, 3-4 mm. long, soon conspicuously lacerate, the segments sub- 
ulate, rather weak; inflorescence consisting of axillary and terminal spikes; spikes slen- 
der, 1-7 em. long, mostly terminal, covered by the imbricated ocreae above; flowers 
sessile and solitary in each axil; calyx 2.2 mm. long, five-cleft to the middle, at length 
exceeding the ocreae; stamens eight, included; style .1-.2 mm. long, three-parted, appar- 
ently formed by the splitting of the apex of the ovary and achene; achene triquetrous, 
2 mm. long, narrowly-oblong, acuminate, included, dark brown or nearly black, mostly 
smooth and shining. 
From the Napa and Sacramento region of California northward to Josephine county, 
Oregon. 
