KUMEX.] POL YGONACEM. 43 



swept up by the country people and eaten cooked. The fruit is 

 densely setose. I have seen no specimens from the area included in 

 this flora. 



FAGOPYRTJM ESCTJLENTUM, Mcench ; Don Prod. 73 ; Royle III. 317 ; 

 F. B. I. v, 55. Watt E. D. ; DC. UOrig. PL Cult. 279 ; Duthie 

 Field and Gard. Crops N. W. Prov. and Oudh m, 25, t. 83. Vern. 

 Phdphra, kulti, ogla. (Buckwheat). An erect glabrous annual 1-3 ft. 

 high. Leaves triangular-cordate, acute. Flowers white or pink, in 

 terminal subcapitate cymes. Nuts trigonous, acutely angled. Much 

 cultivated for its grain in Dehra Dun and in the Sub-Himalayan tracts 

 eastwards, as well as in the hilly districts of Central and S. India ; 

 also extensively on the Himalayan ranges and up to 12,000 ft. in W. 

 Tibet. Another species, known as jP. tataricum, and distinguished by 

 having the angles of the nuts blunt, is a much taller and coarser 

 plant, and is usually restricted to the Himalaya and at rather 

 higher elevations. It is much cultivated by the inhabitants of the 

 higher villages. 



ANTIGONUM LEPTOPUS, Hook, and Am. ; Gamble Man. 552 ; Prain 

 Beng. PL S89 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 519. The Coral Creeper. A large 

 handsome climbing shrub with bright pink flowers. It is a native 

 of S. America, and is largely grown in the gardens of N. India. 



MUEHLENBECKIA PLATyCLADOs, Meissn. (Cocoloba platycloda, F. Muell.). 

 A quaint-looking glabrous shrub with flattened leaf-like branches 



(phylloclades) is often grown in the gardens of Upper India. It is a. 



native of the Solomon Islands. 



XCIIL ARISTOLOCHIACE-flE. 



Herbs or shrubs, often climbing, usually more or less foetid. 

 Leaves alternate, entire or lobed ; stipules none. Flowers 2-sexual, 

 often large, usually lurid, terminal axillary or lateral, solitary 

 racemose or cymose, with or without bracts. Perianth simple, 

 more or less adnate below to the ovary, regular or irregular, 3-lobed 

 or tubular, lobes valvate. Stamens 6 or more, adnate in 1 or 2 

 series to the top of the ovary or round the style ; anthers erect ; 

 cells parallel, dehiscing dorsally. Ovary 4-6-celled ; placentas 

 parietal, free or extending to the axis ; style columnar, stigma 

 lobed ; ovules many, anatropous. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds 

 many ; albumen copious, fleshy, embryo minute. Species about 

 200, chiefly tropical. 



