28 cxix. POLYGONACEiE. (J. D. Hooker.) \_Polygonum. 



7000ft-, from Bliotan to Kashmir (absent m Ceylon). DISTRIB. Affghanistan, Tropical 

 Asia, Java, Philippines, Australia, Madagascar, Egypt, Tropical and S. Africa. 



If (following Wallich's example for most of them) I am right in bringing all the 

 following forms under one species, this is a far more protean plant than P. aviculare, 

 with which it is generally compared, but from which it differs entirely in habit, in the 

 few-nerved stipules, and rhombic smooth nut. I have spent some days in analyzing 

 the flowers and fruit of the vast number of specimens of it at my disposal, in the vain 

 attempt to discover constant even varietal characters amongst them. The utmost I 

 can effect is to select eleven forms, the extremes of which differ so much from one 

 another that I have described them as varieties, though there is not one of these that 

 does not seem to pass insensibly into two or more others, and I regard my work as 

 provisional only. If any one is specifically distinct, it is var. Miqueliana, with its 

 larger flowers and all the sepals acute ; I have, however, seen no other specimens than 

 Hohenacker's ; and the shape of the sepals is so variable with age in other species, that 

 much importance must not be attached to them. Var. micranthema, with nuts some- 

 times only ,'g in. long, at first sight appears very distinct, but there are transitions of 

 all its characters (nuts included) into those of the commoner forms. For the rest I 

 must leave the further elucidation of this aggregate species to local botanists working 

 on fresh specimens. In the matter of the citation of published works and Herbarium 

 numbers, &c., I have been very sparing, because I cannot reconcile in several cases 

 Meissner's descriptions and references with the specimens of Wallich, and with 

 other authors' writings ; and the diagnoses of the earlier authors are vague and incom- 

 plete. Though described as annual, the root is so often woody, that I think it must be 

 at times biennial or even perennial. 



P. plebejum proper ; branches stout or slender, stipules rather short lower inter- 

 nodes often longer than the leaves upper shorter or very short, leaves ^ to ^ in. upper 

 often much shorter oblong or linear obtuse margin often recurved, flowers sunk 

 amongst the stipules rarely exserted, sepals short broad rounded. P. illecebroides, 

 Meissn. I. c. 94. P. cliffortioides, Meissn. I. c., and in Wall. PI. As. Bar. iii. 62. 

 P. herniarioides, Herb. Strach. Sf Winterb. 23. P. Roxburghii, var. brevifolia & 

 pedicellaris, Jtfeissn. I. c. 93. 



Common from Assam to the N.W. Provinces and on the lower hills. This is 

 intended to include all the forms known to me that do not better agree with the 

 diagnosis of the following ones. It is a common African and Australian plant. To 

 it I should refer Wallich's 1691/1, 1691/3, 1691/4, the lower left-hand specimen, 

 1691/5, except the Prome specimen, and 1691 Gr, I, K. 



Var. effusa ; lax, slender, flaccid, internodes longer, leaves narrowly linear or 

 dilated upwards from a very narrow base tip rounded, flowers all or most pedicelled, 

 sepals .short broad. P. effusum, Meissn. I. c. 93, in part. Bengal to Bombay, 

 Guzerat and N.W. India. Kumaon, Herb. Strach. Sf Winterb. 22. Probably a native 

 of wet places, whence its -characters. Strachey and Winterbottom's specimens are 

 characteristic, but Wallich's 1691/3 from Oude appears to me to be nothing but 

 common plebejum. 



Var. indica ; branches uniformly spreading all round from the crown and leafy, inter- 

 nodes short, leaves \-^ in. uniformly spreading horizontally linear- or obovate-obloug flat 

 obtuse or apiculate, stipules very short, flowers crowded in the axils, pedicels shorter 

 than the perianth or 0, sepals broad 2 outer acute, nut T \ in. P. indicum (& ? P. 

 linifolium), Heyne in Roth Nov. Sp. 208; Wight Ic. t. 1808; Dalz. fy Gibs. Bomb. 

 Fl. 214. P. Koxburghii, var. a. longifolimn & 7. spathu-latum, Meissn. I. c. 93. P. 

 Dryandri, Wall. Cat. 1691 H, L. The common Mysore and Carnatic form, also 

 occurring in Bombay. When more irregular in development of leaves and branches not 

 distinguishable from P. plebejum proper. Both habit and locality point to its being 

 P. indicum of Roth, who describes the occasional scabridity of the end of the leaf as 

 serrulation, and suspects its identity with P. plebejum. It is a common Australian 

 and African form. 



Var. brevifolia ; rootstock very woody, branches very stout grooved often 1-2 ft. 

 dark brown, internodes of branchlets very short concealed by the leaves and stipules 

 which latter show as a continuous white villous band on the underside of the branch- 

 lets, leaves |- in. obovate acute or apiculate flat coriaceous dark brown when dry, 



