POLYGONACE^E. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 419 



2. FAGOPYRTJM, Tourn. BUCKWHEAT. 



Calyx petal-like, equally 5-parted, withering and nearly unchanged in fruit. 

 Stamens 8. Styles 3: stigmas capitate. Achenium 3-sided, longer than the 

 calyx. Embryo large, in the centre of the albumen, which it divides into 2 parts, 

 with very broad and foliaceous plaited and twisted cotyledons. Annuals, with, 

 triangular-heart-shaped or halberd-shaped leaves, semicylindrical sheaths, and 

 corymbose racemes or panicles of white flowers, often tinged with green or rose- 

 color. (Name, $1770?, the beech, and irvpos, wheat, from the shape of the grain 

 being that of the beech-nut ; whence also the English name Buckwheat, from 

 the German Budje, beech.) 



I. F. ESCULENTUM, Moench. (BUCKWHEAT.) Smoothish; flower with 8 

 honey-bearing yellow-glands interposed between the stamens; the fruit acute 

 and entire. (Polygonum Fagopyrum, L.) Old fields, remaining as a weed 

 after cultivation, and escaping into copses. June -Sept. (Adv. from Eu.) 



3. OXYRIA, Hill. MOUNTAIN SORKEL. 



Calyx herbaceous, of 4 sepals ; the two outer smaller and spreading, the two 

 inner broader and erect (but unchanged) in fruit. Stamens 6. Stigmas 2, ses- 

 sile, tufted. Achenium lenticular, thin, flat, much larger than the calyx, sur- 

 rounded by a broad and veiny wing. Seed flattened in the opposite direction 

 from the wing. Embryo straight, occupying the centre of the albumen, slender. 

 Low alpine perennials, with round-kidney-form and long-petioled leaves 

 chiefly from the root, obliquely truncate sheaths, and small greenish flowers 

 clustered in panicled racemes on a slender scape. (Name from ovs, sour, in 

 allusion to the acid leaves, like those of Sorrel. ) 



1. O. digyna, Campdera. Leaves all round-kidney -form, usually notched 

 at the end ; fruit orbicular. Alpine region of the White Mountains, New 

 Hampshire, Ookes, &c., and high northward. (Eu.) 



4. RUMEX, L. DOCK. SORREL. 



Calyx of 6 sepals ; the 3 outer herbaceous, sometimes united at the base, 

 Spreading in fruit ; the 3 inner larger, somewhat colored, increasing after flow- 

 ering and convergent over the 3-angled achenium, veiny, often bearing a grain- 

 like tubercle on the back (in fruit called valves). Stamens 6. Styles 3: 

 stigmas tufted. Embryo slightly curved, lying along one side of the albumen, 

 slender. Coarse herbs, with small and homely (mostly green) flowers, which 

 are crowded and commonly whorled in panicled racemes ; the petioles somewhat 

 sheathing at the base. (The ancient Latin name of these plants ; of unknown 

 etymology. ) 



1. DOCK. Flowers perfect or monceciously polygamous: herbage not sour: none 

 of the leaves halberd-sha/>ed. (Flowering through the summer.) 



* Perennials, 2 - 7 high : valves not bearing bristles. 

 i- Valves (large, 3" broad, thin) all naked or one with a small grain. 

 1. R. PATIENTIA, L. (PATIENCE DOCK.) A very tall species, with ovate- 

 oblong and lanceolate leaves, those from the root 2 - 3 long, and one of the 



