POLYGONACE^l. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 371 



opposite sessile leaves, and spiked scariotts-bracted flowers. (Named for J. A. 

 Frdlich, a German botanist of the last century.) 



1. F. FlOl'idaiia, Moquin. Stem leafless above (l-2high); leaves 

 lanceolate, silky-downy beneath ; spikelets crowded into an interrupted spike ; 

 calyx very -woolly. (T) Illinois, in Mason and Cass Counties, Mead, T. J. Hale, 

 E. Hall, &s. "Western Wisconsin. Aug. Apparently indigenous : but else- 

 wliere it is only found much farther south. 



GOMFURENA GLOB6SA, L., is the common GLOBE AMARANTH of the gar- 

 dens. 



ORDER 92. POLYGONACE^E. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with alternate leaves, furnished with stipules in the form of sheaths 

 (ochreae) above the swollen joints of the stem ; the flowers mostly perfect, 

 with a more or less persistent calyx, a \-celled ovary bearing 2-3 styles or 

 stigmas, and a single erect orthotropous seed. Embryo curved or straight- 

 ish, on the outside of the albumen, or rarely in its centre ; the radicle 

 pointing from the hilum and to the apex of the dry seed-like fruit. Sta- 

 mens 4-12, inserted on the base of the 3-6-cleft calyx. Leaves usually 

 entire. (The watery juice often acrid, sometimes agreeably acid, as in 

 Sorrel ; the roots, as in Rhubarb, sometimes cathartic.) Our few genera 

 all belong to the POLYGONE.E PROPER. 



Synopsis. 



* Sepals mostly 5, somewhat equal, all erect in fruit. 



1. POLYGONUM. Embryo narrow, curved around one side of the albumen : cotyledons 



slender or flat. 



2. FAGOPY11UM. Embryo in the albumen, its very broad cotyledons twisted-plaited. 



* * Sepals 4-6, the outer row reflexed, the inner erect and enlarging. 



3. OXYRTA. Sepals 4. Stigmas 2 Fruit 2-winged, samara-like. 



4. RUMEX. Sepals 6. Styles 3. Fruit 3-angled, wingless, enclosed in the enlarged inner 



sepals. 



1. POLYGON UNI, L. KNOTWEED. 



Calyx mostly 5-partcd ; the divisions often petal-like, all erect in fruit, wither- 

 ing or persistent and surrounding the lenticular or 3-angular achenium. Sta- 

 mens 4-9. Styles or stigmas 2-3. Embryo placed in a groove on the outside 

 of the albumen and curved half-way around it ; the radicle and usually the coty- 

 ledons slender. Pedicels jointed. (Name composed of TroXv, many, and yow, 

 knee, from the numerous joints.) 



$ I. BISTORT A, Tourn. Calyx petal-like, deeply Deleft: stamens 8 or 9 : style* 

 3, slender: achenium 3-sided: stems low and simple from a woody creeping root- 

 stock : floicers in a spike-like raceme. 

 1. P. viviparum, L. (ALPINE BISTORT.) Smooth, dwarf (4' -8' 



high), bearing a linear spike of flesh-colored flowers (or often little red bulblets 



