36 POLYGON ACE M. [POLYGONUM 



An erect branching usually pale -green annual. Stems often tinged with 

 red. Leaves subsessile, elliptic-ovate or lanceolate, glandular beneath ;. 

 stipules usually shortly ciliate. Racemes erect or nodding, dense or 

 (in Indian specimens) rather lax ; bracts eciliate, peduncles and pedi- 

 cels glandular. Perianth greenish, glandular, nerves strong. Stamens 

 usually 6. Nutlets orbicular, biconvex. 



Collected by Dr. T. Thomson in the Moradabad District. This is the 

 only authentic record I have seen of its occurrence within the area o 

 this flora, though doubtless existing in other localities. DISTRIB. 

 From Bengal to the N. W. Frontier, ascending to 5,000 ft. on the 

 Himalaya ; also in Assam and Burma. This is the var. laxa of the 

 Fl. Brit. Ind., distinguished from the type by its cylindric and more 

 lax racemes. 



7. P. stagninum, Buch.-Ham. ex Meissn. in Wall. PI. As. Ear. 

 Hi, 56 ; F. B. I. v 9 37 ; Prain Beng. PL 887 ; Gage, in Rec. Bot, 

 Surv. Ind. ii, 397. 



A simple or branched annual. Stems erect or ascending, eglandular. 

 Leaves 3-5 in. long, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, strigosely pubes- 

 cent on both surfaces, often glandular beneath, usually silky when 

 young, turning grey when dry ; stipules strigose, cilia shorter than 

 the tube. Racemes erect, many-flowered ; peduncles usually long 

 and stout, sub-silkily strigose ; bracts close, more or less hairy and 

 ciliate on the margins. Perianth white, eglandular. Styles long 

 connate below. Nutlets 3-gonous, pitchy black. 



In Wet places in the Sub-Himalayan tracts from Dehra Dun to N. Oudh. 

 DISTRIB. : Himalayan outer ranges from the Punjab to Sikkim ; also 

 in Bengal, Assam and Burma. This plant is so closely related to 

 P. barbatum that, apart from certain differences in regard to pubes- 

 cense, characters which are not invariably constant, the two might 

 Well be united under one species, treating P. stagninum as a variety 

 of P. barbatum., as already suggested by Sir Joseph Hooker and Major 

 Gage. 



8. P. barbatum, Linn. Sp. PL 362 ; Eoyle III. 313 ; F. B. I. v f 



37 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. PI. 887 ; Gage I. c. 397. P. rivulare y 

 Keen. ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii, 290. 



A stout annual. Stems erect, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves 4-7 in. long,, 

 lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acuminate, tapering to the acute base,, 

 glabrous except the ciliolate margins and midrib beneath ; stipules 

 strigose, the mouth with cilia which exceed the length of the tube. 



