Polygonum.] cxix. POLYGONACEJE. (J. D. Hooker.) 37 



rather slender ; peduncles densely glandular ; bracts short ; flowers bright red, hardly 

 exserted. Stamens 8. Nut broadly trigonous, black. I find no character for Meiss- 

 ner's var. verrucosum,'of which I think the varnish is due to the glue used in mounting 

 the specimen. 



Var. minor; smaller, weaker, more slender and sparsely hirsute, green when dry, 

 leaves 1-1 in. elliptic-lanceolate obtuse. Wall. Cat. 1713 C. Nepal (cult, in Hort. 

 Bot. Calc.) ; Silhet. 



32. P. stag-ninum, Ham. mss. ; Meissn. in Wall. PI. As. Rar. iii. 56, 

 in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 104 ; stem erect or ascending and branches glabrous 

 below above and peduncles subsilkily strigose, leaves 35 in. lanceolate or 

 linear-lanceolate acuminate strigosely pubescent on both surfaces glandular 

 or not beneath, stipules strigose cilia shorter than the tube, racemes strict 

 erect, bracts close glabrous or strigose ciliate, perianth eorlandular. P. to- 

 mentosum, Wall. Cat. 1709/4 in part, E, G, H. P. barbatum, Wall. Cat. 

 1708 F. P. Bishirse, Ham. mss. ; and P. conspersum, Meissn. in Wall. PI. 

 As. JKar. 1. c., and in DC. I. c. 102. P. hispidum, Sab. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 xviii. 100 (not of Don). P. Hamiltonii, Meissn. in DC. 1. c. 104, excl. syn. 

 P. hispidum, (not of Sprengel). P. Goyalpara, Herb. Ham. P. Horne- 

 manni, Meissn. in DC. I. c. 107. 



Throughout the hotter parts of India, from CHITTAGONG, CACHAB and BENGAL 

 to CHAMBA, ascending the Himalaya in Sikkim and Kumaon to 4000 ft. MYSOEE, 

 Clarice. PEGU and BURMA, Wallich. 



Annual ? Stem simple or branched. Leaves usually grey when dry, young often 

 silky. Racemes stout or slender ; peduncles usually long and stout ; bracts glabrous 

 or more or less (sometimes densely) strigose, very many-fld. j flowers white. Styles 

 long, slender, connate below. Nut pitchy black. Very near P. barbatum, and 

 probably a form of it ; but the peduncles are invariably strigose, the racemes and 

 cilia of the stipules both shorter. Meissner refers Sprengel's Hamiltonii (which is 

 Hamilton's hispidum) to the neighbourhood of P. barbatum, but I am disposed to place 

 it under P.flaccidum, whilst the rest of Meissner's Hamiltonii comes here. 



33. F. barbatum. Linn. ; Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 104; branches 

 stout erect and peduncles glabrous, or nearly so, leaves 4-7 in. lanceolate or 

 linear-lanceolate acuminate glabrous except the ciliolate margins and mid- 

 rib beneath, stipules*strigose cilia longer than the tube, racemes 2-4 in. 

 slender erect, bracts close glabrous sparingly and shortly ciliate, perianth 

 eglandular white, stamens 5-8. Sab. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. 100 ; Wall. 

 Cat. 1708, excl. F-, Wight Ic. 1. 1798 ; Miguel Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 999. P. rivu- 

 lare, Keen., Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 290 ; G-rah. Cat. Bomb. PL 172 ; Dalz. fy 

 Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 214. P. Hornemanni, Meissn. in DC. I. c. 107. P. Mar- 

 moramas & fluviatile, Serb. Sam. 



Throughout the hotter parts of India, from ASSAM to the INDUS, and southwards 

 to MALACCA, PENANG and CEYLON. DISTRIB. Tropical Asia and Africa. $ 



The nearly or quite glabrous stems and peduncles, the long bearded stipules, long 

 weak slender but erect racemes, and shorter weaker cilia of the bracts, best distinguish 

 this from P. stagninum ; but none of these characters holds good by itself, and I 

 look to Indian botanists for further information. I am not certain that the synonymy 

 of these plants is quite right, there is so much confusion between the names adopted 

 by Hamilton, Wallich and Roxburgh, which last author has different names for 

 the same plant in his Herbarium, his Icones and his Flora. The barbatum 

 of "Flora Indica" is, I think, certainly what I have retained as flaccidum ; that so 

 called on his authority in Herb. Wallich is P. Hydropiper ; that of his Icones is 

 undoubtedly P. tomentosum ; whilst in his Herbarium P. barbatum is labelled P. 

 aquaticum, which suggests to me that it is the rivulare of " Flora Indica," of which 

 there is a poor drawing in his Icones, representing a very narrow-leaved plant with 

 short stipules and slender racemes of white flowers. 



