Polygonea. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 209 
Cymes compound, pubescent, 2-4 inches broad, many-flowered. Flowers pedicellate. Perianth tubular or funnel- 
shaped, pubescent, with a bluntly five-lobed mouth. Stamens seven ; filaments unequal in height, united into a 
tube surrounding the base of the ovary. Ovary elongated, membranous, one-celled, with one erect ovule, a long 
slightly curved style, and discoid heart-shaped stigma. U¢ricudus surrounded with the hardened, lengthened, ribbed 
perianth, 13 inch long; ribs viscid, not spinous. .Embryo linear, with longitudinally-folded, crumpled cotyledons, 
enclosing a little albumen and a short terete radicle. (Name from William Pisoñ, a Dutch botanist and Brazilian 
traveller.) 
1. Pisonia Sinclairii, Hook. fil.; arborea, foliis amplis elliptico-oblongis obtusis glaberrimis, cymis 
compositis puberulis, floribus 7-andris, perianthiis fructiferis costatis viscidis costis inermibus. P. grandis, 
A. Cunn, Herb. Norf. Isl. et Austral. Non Br. Tas. L. 
Has. Northern Island. Wangarei Harbour, Sinclair. East coast, Colenso. Nat. name, “ Para- 
para," Col. 
PLATE L. Fig. 1, flower; 2, perianth laid open; 3, ovarium ; 4, ripe fruit enclosed in the perianth; 5, utri- 
eulus, ripe, removed from ditto; 6, transverse section of perianth and ripe utriculus; 7, embryo; 8, part of the 
same laid open, showing the crumpled cotyledons and radicle :—all but fig. 4 magnified. 
NAT. Ord. LXIX. POLYGONEA, Juss. 
Gen. I. POLYGONUM, Z. 
Perianthium petaloideum, 4-5-lobum v. -partitum. Stamina 4-9. Stylus 2-3-partitus; stigmata 
capitata. Nuw perianthio quandoque baccato tecta. Zwörgo unilateralis. 
Herbs or shrubs, erect or climbing, found in every quarter of the globe and in most latitudes; with alternate 
leaves, whose petioles have stipules that form membranous tubular sheaths around the stem above them. Flowers 
generally racemose, sometimes spiked, or solitary and axillary. Perianth petaloid, four- to five-lobed or -parted. 
Stamens four to nine. Styles two to three, or two- to three-parted, each arm bearing a capitate stigma. Nut 
angled or compressed, with one erect seed, enclosed in the withered, dry, or fleshy perianth. Albumen mealy. 
Embryo placed at one side of the albumen.—The species of this genus are very difficult of determination, being ex- 
tremely variable in size, habit, foliage, and inflorescence, The fleshy calyx of the Muhlenbeckia section is sometimes 
white, transparent, and very large and juicy; at others in the same plant merely thickened and opake. (Name 
from modus, many, and yovv, a joint ; in allusion to the jointed stems.) 
$a. PERSIGARIA. Flowers hermaphrodite, spiked. Style bifid. Nut lenticular, included in the withered 
‚perianth. 
1. Polygonum prostratum, Br.; herbaceum, glabrum v. pilosum, caule prostrato, foliis lanceolatis 
margine scaberulis, ochreis ciliatis, spicis axillaribus terminalibusgue gracilibus longe pedunculatis laxifloris, 
floribus glabris. Br. Prodr. A. Cunn. Prodr., etc. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands; not uncommon, especially in grassy and cultivated places. Nat. 
name, “ Tutu-nawai,” Col. 
Smooth or pilose, herbaceous. Stems prostrate, elongated, sparingly branched, a foot long. Leaves scattered, 
linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 2-8 inches long, scabrid at the margin, membranous; ochrex elongated, brown, with 
long cilia at the mouth. Spikes on long peduncles, axillary or terminal, slender, 1-2 inches long. Flowers small, 
not crowded. Bracts truncate, ciliate or smooth at the mouth. —Abundant in the southern parts of Australia, and 
in Tasmania. 
3 F 
