ae 
ABRONIA POLYGONACEE | 567 
and fleshy, prostrate very viscid-pubescent 1-3 feet long, from a long fleshy 
perennial root: leaves chick, broadly ovate to reniform 6-18 lines !ong, obtuse, 
on short thick petioles: peduncles usually exceeding the leaves: bracts of 
the involucre 5, rounded to ovate or oblong 2-4 inches:long: flowers numer- 
ous 5-6 lines lung bright yellow, very fragrant, the lobes emarginate: fruit 
4-6 lines long, coriaceous, acute at each end, the wings more or less unequally 
developed, usually narrow. On sand-banks along the coast, Vancouver Island 
to California, 
A. fragrans Nutt. Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. v, 261. More or less vis- 
cid-puberulent: stems several, from a perennial root, herbaceous, 6-20 inches 
high, erect or ascending, usually much branched: leaves oblong or ovate, 1-3 
inches long, truncate, more or less cuneate at base, obtuse to acute: peduncles 
mostly solitary: bracts of the involucre large, broadly ovate, white and scari- 
ous 4-9 lines long: flowers white, very numerous in the involucres, 5-10 lines 
long, opening at night: fruit 3-6 lines long, coriaceous, with narrow undulate 
wings which do not close over the ovary; In dry soil eastern Washington 
to Iowa. 
OrpeER LXXV POLYGONACEZ Lindl, Nat. Syst. 211. 
Herbs shrubs or trees with jointed stems, watery, often acid 
or acrid, juice, alternate, opposite or whorled simple mostly en- 
tire leaves with sheathing united stipules and regular perfect, 
dicecious, moncecious or polygamous flowers. Calyx free from 
the ovary, 2-6-cleft or 2—6-parted, the segments or sepals more 
or less imbricated, often petal-like stamens 2~9, inserted near 
the base of the calyx, or in staminate flowers crowded toward 
the center. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with'a solitary erect or 
pendulous orthotropous ovule. Style 2-3-cleft or 2-4-parted, 
sometimes very short stigma, capitate or tufted, rarely 2-cleft. 
Fruit a lenticular 3-angled or rarely 4-angled achene, usually 
invested by the persistent calyx. Hinbeye straight or curved 
in mealy albumen. 
TRIBE 1 Herbs or somewhat shrubby plants. Flowers 
involucrate. 
1 Eriogonum Involucre several-flowered with 4-8, pointless teeth : flow- 
- ers exserted: stamens 9: achenes mostly 3-angled. 
‘2 Oxytheca Involucre few-flowered, herbaceous, with 3-5 straight acute 
or awned lobes: flowers on exserted pedicels, pubescent: stamens 9: 
achenes lenticular. 
3 Chorizanthe Involucre 1-3-flowered, coriaceous or chartaceous, 3-6 
angled, with 3-6 cuspidate often hooked teeth and sometimes as many 
cuspidate divaricate spurs at base: flowers usually included: stamens 
3, 6 or 9: achenes 3-angled. 
4 Pterostegia Slender annuals with opposite toothed or_lobed leaves: 
involucre bract-like, with a solitary included flower. 
TRIBE 11 Herbs with alternate leaves and scarious sheathing 
stipules. Flowers not involucrate. 
5 Polygonum Sepals 4-6, equal, appressed to the triangular or lenticu- 
lar achene: styles 2 or 3: stigmas capitate. 
