Polygonee. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 211 
Leaves 3 lines to } inch long, petiolate, quite smooth, often dotted below, usually broadly obovate, cordate, or 
rounded, rarely acute, sometimes almost as large as in P. australe. Spikes sometimes long and panicled, at others 
reduced to axillary capitate masses -of flowers.—Mr. Bidwill sends an alpine state of this plant, from an elevation of 
6000 feet on the mountains above Nelson, with short, stout, woody stem, and branches 4 inches long, small, fleshy, 
dotted leaves, and terminal clusters of flowers. a 
6. Polygonum (Muhlenbeckia) ephedroides, Hook. fil. ; aphyllum v. sparse foliosum, fruticosum, diffuse 
ramosum, ramis flexuosis intertextis profunde sulcatis ultimis scaberulis, foliis petiolatis sessilibusve parvis 
linearibus subhastatisve basi obtuse dilatatis subacutis, ochreis obligue truncatis brevibus, floribus spicatis 
solitariis axillaribusque, spicis glaberrimis. 
Has. Northern Island. East coast, near the sea, Ahuriri, etc., Colenso. 
A very curious species, closely allied to P. complexum, but with glabrous spikes; also near P. australe, but 
the spikes are not racemose; whilst in the narrow small leaves it differs conspicuously from both.—Very varia- 
ble in habit, prostrate, 6 inches to several feet long, leafless, or with small scattered leaves 4-1 inch long; 
small plants resemble P. aviculare, large ones have rigid, wiry, leafless stems, and look like rushes scattered on 
the beach (according to Mr. Colenso). Usually the male flowers are in loose spikes, with one or two females 
scattered on the same spikes ; when the latter predominate on a plant they are often solitary and axillary. 
* 7. Polygonum awillare, Hook. fil.; pusillum, cespitosum, ramosissimum, ramulis striatis puberulis 
gracilibus confertis, foliis parvis elliptico-oblongis obtusis petiolatis, ochreis oblique truncatis integris, 
floribus solitariis axillaribus pedicellatis. Lond. Journ. Bot. v. 6. p. 278. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands. Mountains near the east coast, Colenso. Port Cooper, Mil- 
ford Sound, and Ruapuke Island, Zyall. 
A very small species, 1-2 inches high, quite glabrous, except the branchlets, and sometimes petioles, which 
are puberulous, with slender, tufted, very much branched stems, spreading on all sides from a small woody root. 
Leaves petiolate, flat, elliptical-oblong, blunt, quite entire, glabrous, 14-2 lines long. Ochree short, obliquely 
truncate, entire. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicellate.—Found also on the Tasmanian mountains, where the species 
straggles a good deal. 
Gen. II. RUMEX, Z. 
Perianthium 6-partitum, duplici serie. Stamina 6. Styli 3. Stigmata multifida. Nus 3-guetra, 
perianthii laciniis interioribus auctis valviformibus tecta. 
Besides the English Dock, which is said to have been fraudulently introduced by Europeans into New Zealand, 
in barter, as Tobacco seed, there is a truly native species of Rumes in these islands, R. flexuosus, which forms an erect 
or procumbent herbaceous branched plant, with grooved, zigzag, flexuous and angular stems, 1-2 feet long or high; 
everywhere quite smooth. Leaves petiolate; radical 4—8 inches long, linear, obliquely cuneate, truncate or obtusely 
two-lobed at the base, margins rather crisped or flat; cauline smaller, on shorter petioles. Flowers green, 1 line 
long, in axillary whorls, drooping, on pedicels 2 lines long. Perianth of six oblong acute pieces, in two rows, of 
which the inner expand into triangular coriaceous veined valves 14 line long, enclosing a trigonous nut; valves 
with acuminate recurved points, a keeled, sometimes spinous costa, and three to four long spines on each margin. 
Stamens six. Styles three, with laciniate stigmata,—The other species of Rumex, which are very numerous, are 
scattered over all parts of the world. (Name of unknown origin.) 
1. Rumex /fezuosus, Banks et Sol.; glaberrimus, caule profunde sulcato flexuoso divaricatim ramoso 
prostrato, foliis anguste linearibus margine crispatis v. planis, pedicellis fructiferis reflexis incrassatis, flori- 
bus hermaphroditis, valvulis triangularibus apice acuminato recurvo dorso carinato seepius arcuato, lateribus 
spinuloso-fimbriatis. R. Brownianus, Campd. Monog. A. Cunn. Prodr. 
