Polygonui>i.~\ cxix. POLTGONACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 51 



Panicle very variable in form, effuse, branches sometimes strict and erect or diverg- 

 ing, at others horizontal and decurved; bracts short, obtuse ; pedicels sometimes in. ; 

 flowers white or pink. Sepals, 2 outer oblong, inner much larger and .broader. Nut 

 pale, not tightly enclosed in the perianth. The Afghanistan plant of Griffith (Jourii. 

 No. 1040) referred by Boissier and Meissner to P. alpinum, is, I think, certainly 

 P. polystaehyum. 



Var. gttlbra, Meissn. 1. c. ; quite glabrous. 



Var. pubescens, Meissn. 1. c. ; puberulous pubescent or tomentose with grey or 

 buff tomentum on the leaves beneath. 



Var. longifolia; leaves linear-oblong 8-9 by 2-2 in. gl abrous above finely pubes- 

 cent beneath, base subcordately truncate, panicle small. Sikkim; at Yakla, alt. 

 12-16,000 ft, Clarke. 



Var. crispata ; leaves glabrous margins crisped and undulately crenulate. 

 Churaba, R. Ellis. 



Var. Griffithii ; leaves densely clothed beneath with silky tomentum, stipules silky. 

 Mishmi Hills, Griffith. 



62. P. rumicifolium., Royle mss. ; Sab. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. 

 112 ; herbaceous, glabrous or spaVsely puberulous or laxly pubescent, stem 

 very robust simple, leaves petioled broadly ovate or ovate-cordate obtuse or 

 subacute, flowers in small axillary and terminal dense-fld. panicles, nut very 

 broadly ovate acutely 3-gonous, about as long as the perianth. Meissn. in 

 DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 138, excl. var. oblongum; G-arcke in Sot. Seise Pr. 

 TPaldem. 136. P. ramosso-spicatum, Klotzsch in Sot. Seise Pr. Waldem. 

 t. 87. 



WESTEEN HIMALAYA; from Nepal, Wallich, to Kashmir, alt. 10-14,000 ft., 

 Boyle, &c. 



Root stout, perennial. Stem 6-18 in., as thick as a swan's quill or less, pale, 

 grooved. Leaves 3-5 by l|-3 in., succulent, green, margin even or undulate, nerves 

 very slender ; petiole % 1 in., very stout ; stipules large, lax, glabrous. Panicles 

 sessile, the axillary ones usually shorter than the leaves; flowers green, -| in. diam. 

 Perianth cleft to near the cuneate base, segments subequal, orbicular, spreading. 

 Nut pale, very broad. I think that some of Boissier's varieties of P. alpinum 

 (polymorphum) are referable to this, which closely resembles the P. alpinum, var. 

 lapathifolium of N.E. Asia and N.W. America, but has much larger flowers. I do 

 not know what Babington's var. # is with retrorsely hairy stems and much smaller 

 leaves. The young parts are acid, and eaten like rhubarb in the Western Himalaya. 

 I find specimens of this distributed by Wallich from Nepal, under the number 1727 

 (Rheum emodi) in Herbs. Hooker and Bentham, but not in the Linnasan. Society 

 Herb., where the species is absent. 



*** Tall, herbaceous or shrubby species. Perianth campanulate, cleft 

 two-thirds way down, base rounded ; lobes oblong erec to -patent. 



63. P. campanulatum, Hook. f. ; pubescent or tomentose, stem 

 creeping and stoloniferous below slender grooved, leaves petioled elliptic 

 ovate or lanceolate acuminate or tip caudate base acute or rounded, flowers 

 nodding or pendulous in terminal cymes with divaricate branches, nut 

 3-winged rather longer than the campanulate perianth. P. rumicifolium, 

 var. y ? oblonga, Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 1. 138. Polyer. n. 69 and 71, 

 Herb. Ind. Or. H.f. $ T. 



TEMPEEATB and *Suu ALPINE HIMALAYA; E. Nepal and Sikkim, alt. 9-12,000 ft., 

 J. D. H., Clarice ; Kumaon, alt. 7500 ft., Strachey fy Winterbottom. 



Stem 2-3 ft. high, prostrate or ascending, dichotomously branched, glabrous or 

 pubescent above. Leaves 3-6 by l-2 in., more or less pubescent on both surfaces 

 with grey, or (beneath) buff tomentum, membranous or rather coriaceous ; petiole 

 ^-^ in. ; stipules ample, deciduous near the base or altogether. Inflorescence cuite 



2 



