PECULIAR PLANTS. 195 



As for the flowers, which are concealed at the 

 base of the leaves, they are of a dull red, and large in 

 proportion to the plant. They have been studied by 

 an Italian botanist named Delpino, but I can find no 

 account of them in English or German works. 



A bell-shaped chamber is formed, a sort of 

 Mam er tine prison, in which I believe that small 

 insects are confined, just as they are in the little 

 dungeon of the Arum. 



I found no prisoners in the flowers which I 

 examined, but they were growing in the hall of a hotel 

 where insects are scarce. The floral organs are in 

 fours (tetramerous), like those of Paris, which is some- 

 times classed near to Aspidistra. 



You will not easily find a more peculiar plant 

 than the Polygonum platydadon. The name implies 

 " flat branches," and they do, in fact, resemble green 

 ribbon, or that seaweed called Laminaria. The shrub 

 is practically leafless, and the strap-shaped twigs are 

 jointed at short intervals. If you trace these down- 

 wards, you will find that they become thicker as you 

 approach the main stem, which is rounded and quite 

 solid. Allied are the Dock (Rumex), Rhubarb, 

 Miihlenbeckia, a curious Riviera climber which I have 

 mentioned in another chapter, and many small weeds 

 such as Bistort and Knotgrass (P. amculare). These 

 differ in leaf and in habit almost as much as is 

 possible, yet their affinities are revealed in every 

 case by the little triangular fruit. Buckwheat 

 (P. Fagopyrum), that is, " Beech-wheat," German 

 " Buch-weizen," is so called from the same triquetrous 

 grain, which resembles Beech-mast : Buck = Buch = 

 Beech. " Book " is, of course, the same word. 



13A 



