POLYGONACEJ5. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 371 



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

 FrOlich, a German botanist of the last century.) 



1. F. Floridana, 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 Cuss Counties, Mead, T. J. Hale, 

 E. Hall, <fc*. Western Wisconsin. Aug. Apparently indigenous : but else- 

 where it is only found much farther south. 



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

 dens. 



ORDER 92. POLYGONACElE. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 



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

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

 with a more or less persistent calyx, a l-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 POLYGONEJS PROPER. 



Synopsis. 



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



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



slender or flat. 



2. FAGOPYRUM. Embryo hi the albumen, its very broad cotyledons twisted-plaited. 



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



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



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



sepals. 



1. POL.YGONUUI, L. KXOTWEED. 



Calyx mostly 5-parted ; 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 TroXu, many, and yow, 

 knee, from the numerous joints.) 



1. BIST6RTA, Tourn. Calyx petal-like, deeply 5-cleJl : stamens 8 or 9 : styles 

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

 stock : flowers in a spike-like raceme. 

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



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



