678 



ARBORETUM ET FKUTICETUM BRITANNICUM 



Leaves simple, alternate, with cohesive stipules, deciduous or sub- 

 evergreen ; when young, rolled backwards. Flowers occasionally unisexual, 

 often in racemes. Low suffruticose shrubs, natives of the South of Europe 

 and Asia, included in three genera, which are thus contradistinguished : 

 TRAGOPY'RUM Bieb. Calyx 5-sepaled. Stamens 8. Styles 3. 

 V^TRAPHA'XIS L. Calyx 5-sepaled. Stamens 6. Styles bifid. 

 CALLI'GONUM L. Calyx 5-parted. Stamens 16. Styles 3 4, united at 



the base. 



GENUS I. 



TRAGOPY'RUM Bieb. 



THE GOAT-WHEAT. 

 Trigynia. 



Lin. Syst. Octandria 



Identification. Bieb. Flor. Taurico-Caucas., 3. p. 284. 



Synonyme. Polygonum Lin. Hort. Ups. 95. 



Derivation. Tragos, a goat, and puros, wheat. The 3-cornered fruits of such of the Polygonaceas 

 as have them are comparable, with some allowance, to wheat ; and goats may feed upon those of 

 the Tragopyrum, or upon the shrubs themselves ; or it may be that the name has been invented 

 a? one readily distinctive from the name Fagopy^rum, now the name of a genus that includes the 

 different kinds of buck- wheat 



Gen. Char., fyc. Calyx inferior, with sepals that are imbricate in aestivation, 

 permanent ; the two exterior smaller, the three interior investing the fruit, 

 which is an achenium, that is, 3-cornered in a transverse section of it. 

 Stamens 8. Styles 3. (G. Don.) 



Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous or sub-evergreen ; spathu- 

 late. Flowers in axillary racemes.. Shrubs, small, sub-evergreen, suffru- 

 tescent; natives of the South of Europe, Asia, and America; propagated by 

 seeds or layers in dry soil. 



The species are extremely interesting and beautiful little shrubs, and it is 

 much to be regretted that they are so very seldom seen in collections. Though 

 they require heath soil, and some little time to be firmly established, yet 

 when once they are so, from their compact neat habit of growth, very little 

 care will be necessary afterwards. They never can require much pruning ; 

 are quite hardy ; and, provided the soil be not allowed to get too dry in the 

 heat of summer, they are always certain of flowering freely. 



*~ ~* 1. T. LANCEOLA^TUM Bieb. The lanceolate-leaved Goat- Wheat. 



Identification. Bieb. Fl. Taurico-Caucas. 



Synonymes. Polygonum frutescens Willd. Sp. PI. 2. p. 440. ; strauchartiger Knoterig, Ger. 



Engravings. Gmel. Sib., 3. t. 12. f. 2. ; Bot. Reg., t. 254. ; and our Jig. 1322. 



Spec. Char., $c. Stem spreading widely. 



Leaves lanceolate, tapered to both ends, 



flat. Ochrea lanceolate, shorter than the 



internode. The 2 exterior sepals reflexed, 



and the 3 interior ones obcordate. 



Flowers octandrous, trigynous. A low, 



branchy, sub-evergreen shrub. Siberia and 



Dahuria. Height 1 ft. to 2ft. Introd. 1770, 



but rare in collections. Flowers whitish 



and rose-coloured ; July and August. 



Branches twiggy. Leaf with a frosty hue, 

 spathulate-lanceolate, nearly 1 in. long, se- 

 veral times longer than broad ; its edge ob- 

 scurely indented. The petiole short. The 

 calyxes are whitish, variegated with rose 

 colour, and persistent ; and of the 5 sepals 

 to each flower, the 3 that invest the ovary 1322 T lanceoutll 



