Polygonum.'] cxix. POLYGOXACEJE. (J. D. Hooker.) 35 



eglandular, fruit ovoid faces convex. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 115 

 Fl. Dan. t. 282. 



WESTERN HIMALAYA, Falconer-, Eumaon, alt. 6400 ft., Strachey $ Winter- 

 bottom; Kashmir, Thomson. DISTEIB. Westward to the Atlantic, N. Asia and 

 America. 



RootstocJc creeping, woody. Leaves long petioled and floating, or subsessile and 

 aerial, obtuse or acute, serrulate or ciliate, eglandular ; stipules glabrous or hispid. 

 Racemes very stout, 1-2 in. long; peduncle stout; bracts acute obtuse or cuspidate. 

 Sepals in., not nerved, bright red, much longer than the shining nut. 



26. P. lanigrerum, JBr. Prodr. 419 ; much branched, clothed with 

 snow-white cottony tomentum, leaves petioled or sessile narrowly lanceolate 

 acuminate rarely glabrous above, stipules short truncate eciliate, racemes 

 1-2 in. slender, bracts small crowded glabrous or tomentose eciliate. 

 Meissn. in Wall. PI. As. Rar. iii. 55, and in DC. Prodr, xiv. 1. 117 ; Benth. 

 Fl. Austral, v. 271; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 1030; Wall. Cat. 1714. 

 P. lanatum, Rowl. Hort. Seng. 29, and Fl. Ind. ii. 285. P. arachnoideum, 

 Klotszch mss. 



In ditches, &c. ; BENGAL, Roxburgh, ROHILKUND, Wallich, Thomson, and along 

 the lower HIMALAYA from Sikkim to the Beas River ; Belgaum, Herb. Wight. 

 DISTEIB. Java, Philippines, Egypt, Tropical and S. Africa and America, Australia. 



Stem 2-5 ft., procumbent and creeping below, sometimes much thicker than the 

 thumb; branches slender, much divided, divaricating, white, " deep red within, espe- 

 cially at the joints," Roxb. Leaves 4-8 in., finely acuminate, thickly cottony beneath ; 

 stipules membranous, mouth unequal. Racemes in slender divaricate cottony peduncles ; 

 bracts very small, obtuse or acute, and small red or white perianth eglandular. 

 Stamens 6. Nut orbicular, small, flat, black, shining. Roxburgh describes this as 

 annual, Bossier calls it annual in his clavis and perennial in his description, others 

 say perennial ; the great size of the rooting base of the stem would indicate the 

 latter. 



Var. glutinosa ; peduncles and perianth glandular. P. glutinosuni, Wall. Cat. 

 1717; Meissn. in Wall. PI. As. Rar. iii. 55, and in DC. 1. c. 120. Banks of the 

 Irawaddy, Wallich. This appears to me a form of P. lanigerum growing in dry 

 places. The root is annual. S. Africa. 



27. P. lapathifolium, Linn. ; Boiss. FL Orient, iv. 1030 ; annual, 

 erect, branched, leaves subsessile elliptic-ovate or lanceolate glandular 

 beneath ciliolate, stipules sparingly ciliate, racemes dense-fid.- erect or 

 nodding, bracts eciliate, pedicels usually glandular, perianth greenish 



flandular nerves strong, stamens usually 6. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 

 19 ; Eeichb. Ic. Crit. v. t. 495 ; Engl. Sot. t. 1382. 



Plains of N. INDIA; var. nodosa from Lahore westwards to Kashmir, ascending 

 the Himalaya to 7000 ft.; var. laxa from BENGAL to the Sutlej, ascending the Hima- 

 laya to 6000 ft. The CONCAN. DISTRIB. W. and N. Asia, Europe, Africa, and America. 



I am indebted to Mr. Baker for identifying the Indian forms of this and the 

 following species, which present a series of varieties more or less .representing the 

 European ones described above, but none of them conforming to the typical 

 P. lapathifolium. The var. nodosa is, he informs me, often very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from P. Persicaria. 



Var. nodosa 5 taller, more branched, spikes oblong, perianth reddish not so 

 strongly veined, nut smaller. P. nodosurn, Pers.-, Meissn. in DC. 1. c. 118. P. ma- - 

 culatum, Dyer <Sf Trimen. 



Var. laxa ; spikes laxer cylindric. P. laxum, Reichb. Ic. Crit. v. 56, t. 492. 

 P. nutans, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 285. P. quadrifidum, Herb. Strachey $ Winter- 

 bottom, Polyg. 24. 



28. P. Persicaria, Linn. ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 1030 ; annual, erect 



D 2 



