POLTGONACEjE. (buckwheat family) 37 1 



opposite sessile leaves, and spiked scarious-bracted flowers. (Named for J. A, 

 FrOlich, a German botanist of the last century.) 



1. F. Floridi&lia, Moquin. Stem leafless above (1°- 2° high) ; leaves 

 lanceolate, silky-downy beneath ; spikelets crowded into an interrupted spike ; 

 calyx very woolly. (X— Illinois, in Mason and Cass Counties, Mead, T. J. j 

 E. Hall, <bs. Western "Wisconsin. Aug. — Apparently indigenous : but else- 

 where it is only found much farther south. 



Gomphrena glob6sa, L., is the common Globe Amaranth of the war- 

 dens. 



Order 92. POLYGON ACE^. (Buckwheat Family.) 



Herbs, with alternate leaves, furnished with stipules in the form of sheaths 

 (ochreas) above the swollen joints of the stem ; the flowers mostly perfect, 

 with a more or less persistent calyx, a l-cclled ovary bearing 2-3 styles or 

 stigmas, and a single erect orlhotropous seed. Embryo curved or straio-ht- 

 ish, on the outside of the albumen, or rarely in its centre; tin' radicle 

 pointing from the hilum and to the apex of the dry seed-like fruit. Sta- 

 mens 4-12, inserted on the base of the 3 - 6-cleft calyx. Leai es usually 

 entire. (The watery juice often acrid, sometimes agreeably acid, as in 

 Sorrel ; the roots, as in Rhubarb, sometimes cathartic.) — Our few o- e nera 

 all belong to the Polygone.<e Proper. 



Synopsis. 



* Sepals mostly 5, somewhat equal, all erect in fruit. 



1. POLYGONUM. Embryo narrow, curved around one side of the albumen : cotyledons 



slender or flat. 



2. FAGOPYRTJM Embryo in the albumen, its very broad cotyledons twisted-plaited. 



* * Sepals 4-6, the outer row reflexed, the inner erect and enlarging. 



3. OXYRIA. Sepals 4. Stigmas 2 Fruit 2-winged, samara-like. 



4. RUMEX. Sepals 6. Styles 3. Fruit 3-angled, wingless, enclosed in the enlarged inner 



sepals. 



1. POLYGONUM, L. Knotweed. 



Calyx mostly 5-parted; the divisions often petal-like, all erect in fruit, wither- 

 ing or persistent and surrounding the lenticular or 3-angular achenium. Sta- 

 mens 4-9. Styles or stigmas 2-3. Embryo placed in a groove on the outside 

 of the albumen and curved half-way around it; the radicle and usually the coty- 

 ledons slender. — Pedicels jointed. (Name composed of iroXv, many, and yow, 

 knee, from the numerous joints.) 



§ 1. BISTOHTA, Touru. — Calyx petal-like, deeply 5-cleft : stamens 8 or 9 : styles 

 3, slender: achenium 3-sided: steins low and simple from a woody creejung root- 

 stock : flowers in a spike-like raceme. 



1. P. viviparuui, L. (Alpine Bistort.) Smooth, dwarf (4' -8' 

 high), bearing a linear spike of flesh-colored flowers (or often little red bulblets 



