38 cxix. POLYGONACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) Polygonum. 



34. P. serrulatunij Lagasc., Boiss. FL. Orient, iv. 1028; stem pros- 

 trate and rooting below, branches and peduncles glabrous, leaves 2-4 in. 

 subsessile linear- or elliptic-oblong or -lanceolate acute or acuminate, gla- 

 brous or sparsely hairy beneath, base rounded cordate or acute, stipules 

 strigose cilia as long as the tube, racemes |-1 in. slender erect, bracts 

 glabrous strongly often squarrosely ciliate, perianth eglandular, stamens 

 5-8, nut trigonous polished. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 110. P. 

 flaccidum, Roxb. FL Ind. ii. 291 (not of Meissn. or Boiss.). P. mite ?, 

 Wall. Cat. 1721 E, G, 1721/a in part. P. Eapte, Herb. Ham. 



Plains and low hills of N. INDIA, from ASSAM and BENGAL to the INDUS, ascend- 

 ing to 4000 ft. ; in the HIMALAYA, from Kumaon westwards. DISTEIB. W. Asia, 

 S. Europe, all Africa, America, Australia. 



Habit between small states of P. barbatum and P. minus, of which latter this is 

 probably a form with stouter racemes and more ciliate bracts and stipules. Specimens 

 with leaves rounded or cordate at the base are distinct enough from both. Boissier 

 describes it as perennial with rosy flowers, but the Indian plant is an annual with 

 white flowers. Meissuer and Boissier could not have attended to Roxburgh's descrip- 

 tion of his P. flaccidum (leaves cordate at the base), or they would have identified 

 that plant with this; Roxburgh's figure of this (under the name of P. flaccidum) 

 represents the leaves as much broader and more cordate at the base than I have 

 ever seen them to be. A remarkable state from Dufla in Bhotan, collected by 

 Booth, has the under surface of the leaves studded with a yellow secretion in 

 minute dots. 



Var. Donii ; tall, slender, leaves petioled elliptic or lanceolate acuminate at both 

 ends sparsely hairy beneath, racemes long slender erect, bracts close imbricate with 

 one far removed and low on the slender peduncle, cilia as long as the tube. P. Donii, 

 Meissn. Monog. Polyg. 72, excl. syn., and in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 105, excl. cit. of 

 Wight. N,epal, Wallich. 



There are two sheets of this in the Hookerian Herbarium (from Wallich, 1821), one 

 with the narrow leaves described by Meissner, the other with much broader elliptic 

 ones. They closely resemble P. flaccidum var. hispida, but the 'closer bracts with 

 long spreading cilia and eglandular perianth distinguish it. From P. Posumbu most 

 of the same characters separate it, but it is in many respects intermediate between 

 these two. 



35. P. PosumbUj Ham. in Don Prodr. 71 (not of Wallich} ; flaccid, 

 very slender, stem extensively creeping below and peduncles quite glabrous, 

 leaves 1-3 in. petioled elliptic-lanceolate caudate-acuminate glabrous or 

 sparsely hairy, stipules sparingly strigose, cilia stiff longer than the tube, 

 peduncles and erect racemes filiform sometimes very long, bracts minute 

 close or distant very shortly ciliate, perianth very small eglandular, nut per- 

 fectly smooth and polished. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 105, in part; 

 Miquel FL Ind. Bat. i. 1000. P. Donii, Watt. Cat. 1723 B. P. caespitosum, 

 Blume Bijd. 532 (of Herb. Lugd. Bat.}. P. gracile, Herb. Ham. 



TEMPEEATE and STJBTEOPICAL HIMALAYA; from Sikkim to Nepal. ASSAM, 

 SILHET, CACHAE and the KHASIA MTS., ascending to 5000 ft. DISTEIB. Munnipore, 

 Java, China and Japan. 



Stem creeping for 1-3 ft., then ascending or decumbent for 12-18 in., simple or 

 branched. Leaves very membranous, ciliolate ; petiole sometimes ^ in. Racemes 

 1-3 in., always erect, very variable in length, sometimes almost capillary and 5 in. 

 long with distant bracts, at others short with imbricate upper bracts and remote 

 lower ones (these resembling small specimens of serrulatum}. Nut 3-gonous, very 

 small. There are no Nepal specimens of this in Hamilton's or Wallich's Herbaria. 

 Hamilton's are from Goalpara in Assam, and are not ticketed P. Posumbu, which 

 name nowhere appears in his collection. Meissner's a tenerum is the right plant ; 

 his $ flrmum is composed of this and of P. flaccidum; his y macropTiyllum is P. 

 flaccidum ; his 5 ? ccespitosum is right ; his e ? ovatum would appear to be Ceratogo 



