414 POLYGONACE^. (BUCKAVIItfAT FAMILY.) 



1. I. celosioides, L. Nearly glabrous annual, erect, slender (2° -4° 

 hijjli); leavfs ovutc-laincolate ; panicles narrow, naked; bracts and calyx sil- 

 very-white, tlie l.'.tter wuully at the base. — Dry banks, Ohio to Illinois and 

 southward. Sept. 



5. FRCELICHIA, Mrench. (Ovlotukcx, Nuit.) 



Flowers perfect, 3-bracted. Caly.x tubular, 5-cleft at the summit, below 2-5- 

 crcsted lengthwise, or tubcrclcd and indurated in fruit, enclosini,' the indehiscent 

 thin utricle. Fihiinenjs united into a tube, bearing 5 oblong l-ccUed anthers, 

 and as many sterile strap-shaped appendages. — Hairy or woolly herbs, Avith 

 op[)osite sessile leaves, and sjiiked searious-braeted flowers. (Named for ./. »-l. 

 Fwlicli, a German botanist of the last century.) 



1. F. Florid^na, Moquin. Root annual; stem leafless above (l°-2° 

 high) ; leaves lanceolate, silky-downy beneath; spikelets crowded into an inter- 

 rupted spike; caljx very woolly. — Illinois, and southward. Aug. 



ORDi:n 87. POLY'GONACEiE. (Buckwheat Family.) 



Herbs, icith alternate leaven, and stipules in the form of sheaths (ochrese, 

 these sometimes obsolete) above the swollen Joints of the stem; the flowers 

 mostly perfect, with a more or less persistent calyx, a l-celled ovary hear in j 

 2 or 3 styles or stigmas, and a single erect orthotropous seed. Embr}-o 

 curved or straiglitish, 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. Stamens 4-12, inserted on the base of the 3-G-cleft calyx. Leaves 

 usually entire. (The watery juice often acrid, sometimes agreeably acnl, 

 as in Sorrel ; the roots, as in Rhubarb, sometimes cathartic.) — West of the 

 Mississippi are a great nimiber of Ekiogone.e, having their flowers sur- 

 rounded by an involucre. Our few genera are all of the true Polygona- 

 ce£e, except the anomalous Brunnichia. 



» Slipular sheaths {pckretB) manifest. Ovule erect from the base of the cell. 

 »- Sepals 5, sometimes 4, somewhat equal and erect in fruit. 



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



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



H- — Sepals 4-6, the outer row reflcxcd, the inner erect and enlarging in fruit. 



3. Oxyrin. Si'puls 4. Sligmas 2. Fruit 2-\vingcd, samara-like. 



4. Runiex. Sepals 6. Styles 3. Fruit o-angled, enclosed by the inner sepals. 



* * Stipules obsolete. Ovule hanging from the apex of a slender stalk. 



5. Briiiiiitcliia. Calyx 5-parted, in fruit with a wing decurrent on the i>e(liccl. Tendril. 



climber. 



1. POLYGONUM, L. Kxotweed. 



Calyx mostly .5-parted ; the divisions often petal-like, all erect in fruit, with- 

 ering or persistent and surroimding the lenticular or 3-angidar achenium. Sta- 

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

 of the albumen and curved hall-way around it ; the radicle and usually th6 cotyl- 



