22 cxviii. PHYTOLACCACE.E. (J. D. Hooker.) [Phytolacca. 



obtuse. Ripe carpels about 10, nearly free, blue-black. The Japanese specimens 

 have broader leaves than the Himalayan. The leaves are eaten cooked. 



OiiDER CXIX. POLYGGNACSJE. 



Herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves rarely opposite, entire or serrulate ; 

 stipules (ochreas) scarious or membranous, usually sheathing the stem. 

 Flowers usually 2-sexual, jointed on the pedicel. Perianth of 3-6, free or 

 -connate, persistent sepals, imbricate in bud. Stamens 5-8, rarely more or 

 fewer, opposite the sepals. Disk annular glandular or 0. Ovary free, 

 2-4-gonous ; styles 1-3, stigmas various ; ovule 1, basilar, orthotropous. 

 Nut hard, usually enclosed in the calyx. Seed erect, testa membranous, 

 albumen floury or horny ; embryo various, radicle superior. Genera 30, 

 species about 600, chiefly temperate. * 



Polygonear. families sedifolia, Wall. Cat. 6286, from the mountains of Nepal, 

 is a remarkable plant, which being without flower or fruit I fail to refer to its genus, 

 or even order. It is prostrate, hirsute, consisting of creeping interlaced stems and 

 branches as thick as a sparrow's quill, the terminal ones bearing imbricate membra- 

 nous short cup-shaped ochrese with oblique entire ciliate mouths, and fleshy linear- 

 oblong obtuse subsessile leaves -| in. long, and hirsute on both surfaces ; filiform 

 simple root fibres are given off from the stem, and these also are hirsutely fibrillose. A 

 solitary rigid peduncle, - in. long, terminates some of the branches, and this bears a 

 small short cupular ochrea. The whole plant much resembles (superficially) a small 

 creeping hirsute &schynantJius. 



Tribe 1. Eupolygonese. Perianth 3-5-cleft. Stamens* 1-S, rarely 

 more. Stiff mas 2-3, capitellate, rarely fimbriate. 



* Shrubs. 



Stamens 12-18. Styles 4 1. CALLIGONDM, 



Stamens 8. Styles 3 2. PTEEOPYBUM. 



** Serbs or undershrubs. 



Stamens 8 or fewer. Cotyledons flat 3. POLTQONUM. 



Stamens 8. . Cotyledons plaited -,.... 4. FAGOPYRFM. 



Tribe 2. Rumiceae. Perianth 4-6-cleft. Stamens 9, rarely 6. Stigmas 

 fimbriate, peltate or horseshoe-shaped. 



Sepals 6, unchanged in fruit. Nut 3-vvinged 5. RHEUM. 



Sepals 4, unchanged in fruit. Nut 2-wiuged 6. OXYBIA. 



Sepals 6, 3 inner enlarged in fruit (except E, acetosella) .... 7. RUMEX. 

 See Kcenigia under Polygonum. 



1. CAXiXiXGONUBX, Linn. 



Kigid much -branched shrubs. Leaves alternate, linear subulate or 

 obsolete, ochrea short. Floivers solitary or few, loosely clustered, ochreate, 

 2-sexual. Sepals 5, flat. Stamens 12-18. Ovary 4-angled. Nut exserted, 

 4-angled, angles variously crested winged echiiiate or setose. Seed oblong, 

 terete or 4-angled ; embryo central, straight, cotyledons narrow. Species 

 20, in deserts of W. and Central Asia and Africa. 



C. polygonoides, Linn. ; Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 29 ; an 



almost leafless shrub or small tree with terete pale flexuous branches and 



