Polygonum.] cxix, POLYGONACE.E. (J. D. Hooker.) 47 



52. P. sagittatum, Linn. ; Meissn. in DC.Prodr.-x.iv. 1. 132; gla- 

 brous, stem suberect or prostrate angles petioles and midrib beneath covered 

 more or less with recurved prickles, leaves petioled 1-2 in. linear-oblong 

 obtuse or acute base sagittate, margins smooth, stipules very short glabrous, 

 heads few small, involucral leaf 0, peduncles slender distantly muricate or 

 smooth, bracts oblong obtuse glabrous, nut 3-gonous. P. muricatum, Serb. 

 Griff. Kew Distrib. 4125. P. Sieboldii, Meissn. I. c. 133. 



WESTEBN HIMALAYA, Falconer Kulu and Kumaon, alt. 7-8000 ft., Edgeworth 

 Lohoo Ghat, Thomson. EAST BENGAL, Griffith. KHASIA MTS., in marshes at My- 

 rung, alt. 5000 ft., J. D. H. $ T. T DISTEIB. Siberia, China, Japan, Eastern N. 

 America. 



Very similar to slender form of P. strigosum^ but the leaves are shorter, more 

 glaucous beneath, not truncate or cordate below, but with two long deflexed or 

 incurved obtuse or acute auricles, and their margins are quite smooth. 



53. P. strig-osum, Br. Prodr. 420; stem 2-4 ft. suberect angles 

 petioles and nerves of leaf beneath more or less covered with recurved 

 prickles, leaves shortly petioled linear or linear-oblong acuminate or acute 

 base truncate or shortly cordate, margin retrorsely prickly, racemes panicled 

 oblong or subglobose, peduncles scabrid prickly or glandular-hispid, bracts 

 ovate or oblong ciliate and strigose, nut globosely 3-gonous included in the 

 perianth. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 134. P. horridum, Roxb. Cat. 29, 

 and Fl. 2nd. ii. 291 ; Meissn. in Wall. PL As. Ear. iii. 58, and in DC. 

 1. c. 133. P. muricatum, Wall. Cat. 1697 (not of Meissn.}, excl. var. gla- 

 brata ; Miquel Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 1011. P. sagittatum, Don Prodr. 73 (not of 

 Linn.}. P. sagittatum /3. indicum, Meissn. Monog. Polyg. 65. P. his- 

 pidulum, Blume Bijd. 535. P. auriculatum, Herb. Ind. Or.^H.f. Sf T. 



TROPICAL HIMALAYA from Kulu to Bhotan, and the KHASIA MTS., ascending to 

 5000 ft., in watery places ; and southward to the NILGHIEI MTS., CniTTAGONa and 

 PENANG. CEYLON ; alt. 5-6000 ft. (C. P. 3348). DISTEIB. Ava, Malay Archipelago, 

 China. 



Stem 1-3 ft., often rather stout, very variable in amount of prickles. Leaves 1-5 in., 

 rigid, glabrous or pubescent beneath, sometimes scabrid above, margin with rigid 

 minute recurved prickles, midrib usually prickly ; petiole -| in. or ; stipules 1 in., 

 ciliate, glabrous or hairy, base with usually a pectinate ring of reversed prickles. 

 Peduncles slender ; racemes -J in., densely many- or few-fld. j flowers pink. Perianth- 

 lobes obtuse. Stamens 6-8. Styles slender, connate below. Nut black, opaque, 

 ?unctulate. Meissner describes the nuts as sometimes biconvex ; I find all the Northern 

 ndian specimens to be trigynous, all the Peninsular digynous, which favours the view 

 that this does not differ from P. peduncular -e. Bentham indeed (Fl. Austral, v. 268) 

 unites with this P. pedunculare, P. glabratum, and P. muricatum. For the first 

 and second there is something to be said, but P. muricatum is an entirely different 

 species. The American P. Meissnerianum differs from P. strigosum chiefly in the 

 prickles not being recurved. 



54. P. praetermissum, Hook. f. ; small, glabrous, stem 6-8 in. 

 ascending subsimple nearly or quite unarmed, leaves shortly petioled linear 

 obtuse base sagittate with obtuse lobes, stipules glabrous eciliate with a few 

 recurved bristles at the base, flowers very few and distant in forked or 

 simple glabrous axillary racemes, bracts erect oblong glabrous or subciliate, 

 nut globosely 3-gonous included in the perianth. P. strigosum, Thwaites 

 Enum., in part ; Benth. Fl. Austral, v. 268, in part. P. muricatum, var. 

 glabrata, Wall. Cat. 1697/3. P. muricatum, Herb. Ind. Or. H.f. Sf T. 



SILHET, WallicJi. KHASIA MTS., in watery places, alt. 4-5500 ft., J. D. H. & 



T. T., Clarke. CEYLON, alt. 6-7000 ft., Walker (C. P. 2250). DISTEIB. Tasmania. 



Stem 4-18 in., creeping and rooting at the base, quite smooth except rarely a few 



