386 POLYGONACE^E. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 



long as the slender recurved pedicels, one or all more or less prominently grain- 

 bearing. (R. divaricatus, Ell.) Waste ground, around dwellings. Introduced. 

 June - Aug. 1J. Stem 2 - 3 high. Lowest leaves 1 - l long, 6' - 9' wide, 

 slightly crenate, and wavy on the margins. 



6. R. pulcher, L. Branches rigid, spreading ; lowest leaves cordate- 

 oblong, somewhat fiddle-shaped, the upper lanceolate, acute ; whorls remote ; 

 valves longer than the thick pedicels, ovate-oblong, rigid, strongly toothed, more 

 or less prominently grain-bearing. Around Charleston, Elliott. Introduced. 

 June and July. 



7. R. maritimus, L. Pubescent ; stem low, diffusely branched ; leaves 

 lanceolate, wavy-margined, the lower ones somewhat cordate or hastate at the 

 base, the upper linear ; whorls compactly crowded in leafy spikes ; valves small, 

 bristly on the margins, nearly covered by the large grain. (R. persicarioides, L.) 

 Sea-shores, North Carolina, and northward. Aug. and Sept. (i) Stems 

 6' - 12' high. Spikes yellowish. 



* * Flowers dioecious. Herbs with sour juice. 

 t- Calyx not enlarged in fruit. 



8. R. Acetosella, L. Root creeping; stems low, erect or ascending; 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate, or linear, entire or hastate-lobed ; panicle slender, leaf- 

 less; whorls scattered, few-flowered; valves ovate, grainless, appressed to the 

 achenium. Old fields and sterile soil, common. June and July, ty Stems 

 6' 12' long. Leaves and flowers small. 



*- - Inner calyx-lobes dilated in fruit. 



9. R. hastatulus, Baldw. Stems clustered, erect; leaves glaucous, lance- 

 olate or linear, or the lowest oblong, entire or hastate-lobed ; whorls few-flowered, 

 scattered, or the upper ones crowded ; valves round-cordate, entire, membrana- 

 ceous, reticulated, red or white, grainless. Dry sands, along the coast and in 

 the middle districts, Florida to South Carolina. May and June. Stem 1- l 

 high. Leaves 1' - 2' long, the upper ones mostly entire. 



2. POLYGONELLA, Michx. 



Flowers perfect or dia-ciously polygamous. Calyx corolla-like, deeply 5-parted 

 or 5-sepalous ; the three inner sepals mostly enlarging and enclosing the 3-angled 

 achenium, glandless. Stamens 8 : anthers roundish. Stigmas 3, capitate. Em- 

 bryo straight, or nearly so, in the centre, or at one side of the mealy albumen. 

 Smooth and commonly glaucous herbs or shrubs, with slender branching stems, 

 small alternate leaves, and small flowers in spiked racemes. Sheaths smooth. 

 Bracts imbricated, top-shaped, mostly 1 -flowered. Pedicels nodding in fruit. 



1. Eui'OLYGONELLA. Filaments all alike, subulate : stiymas nearly sessile: 

 Flowers diveciously polygamous : embryo in the centre of the albumen. 



1. P. parvifolia, Michx. Shrubby and diffusely branched at the baso; 

 leaves wedge-shaped or linear-spatulate, vertical ; those on the sterile shoots im- 

 bricated ; sheaths' obliquely truncate, pointless ; racemes short, very numerous, 

 somewhat crowded in an oblong or corymbose panicle ; bracts truncate ; flowers 



