POLYGONUM.] POLYGON ACE M. 31 



Inflorescence capitate, compressed : 



Heads with an involucral leaf at the 



base ...... 13. P. alatum. 



Heads without an involucral leaf at the 



base . . . . . . 14. P. capitatum. 



1. P. plebejum, R. Br. Prod. 420 ; F. B. I. v, 27 : Watt E. D. ; 

 Colle.it Fl. Siml. 421 ; Gage in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 383 ; Prain 

 Beng. PI. 885 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 512. P. aviculare, Don Prod. 

 72 (not of Linn.). P. herniarioides, Del. ; Royle III 313. 



A prostrate diffusely branched herb, often with a woody rootstock ; 

 branches stout or slender, terete, striate, glabrous ; lower internodes 

 often longer than the leaves, upper shorter or very short. Leaves 

 sessile or shortly stalked , J-f in. long, oblong or linear or obovate ; 

 stipules hyaline, rather short, lacerate to the middle and fimbriate, 

 nerves usually obscure. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2-3-nate, 

 sessile or nearly so. Perianth pink, about T ^ in. long, divided nearly 

 to the base ; segments short, broad, rounded or the 2 outer ones 

 acute. Nutlets 3-gonous, shining. 



Throughout Trop. India, ascending to 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya from 

 Bhutan to Kashmir, but not in Ceylon. Beyond India it extends to 

 Afghanistan, Egypt, Trop. and S. Africa, Madagascar, Java, Philip- 

 pines, and Australia. Regarding this very variable species Sir Joseph 

 Hooker remarks that, if he was right in bringing all the ten varieties 

 (or forms) described by him in the Fl. Brit. India under one species, 

 this is a far more protean plant than P. aviculare with which it is 

 generally compared, but from which it differs entirely in habit, in 

 the usually few-nerved stipules and in the rhombic smooth nutlet. 

 P. aviculare is abundant on the W. Himalaya and in W. Tibet. 

 Major Gage, after a careful and detailed examination of the many 

 specimens included in the Calcutta Herbarium, as forms or varieties 

 oi P. plebejum, enumerates 8 varieties in his census. At the same 

 time he is very much inclined to regard them as representing 4 dis- 

 tinct species, and that they might be grouped as follows : 



f plebejum (proper). jj ( indica. 



T \ effusa. I brevifolia. 



lelegans. III. Griffithii. 



\ micranthema. IV. polyneura. 



