44 POLYGONE^E. 



pedicels 1 2 lines long, jointed below the middle: valves ovate-lanceo* 

 late, 1% lines long, finely reticulate, all grain-bearing. Said to have 

 been found at San Francisco. 



7. R. salicifolius,Weinm. Stems clustered, ascending, 13 ft. high: 

 lowest leaves oblong, upper linear-lanceolate, 36 in. long, acuminate, 

 narrowed to a short petiole, not undulate, pale green: panicle open, 

 somewhat leafy, the flowers crowded: pedicels slender, 13 lines long: 

 valves ovate-rhomboid or broadly deltoid, 1^2 lines long, entire or 

 denticulate, one or two of them with large whitish grains. 



-i 4 Valves % ^ in. long, not grain-bearing; herbage glabrous. 



8. E. occiden tails, Wats. Erect, 36 ft. high, sparingly branched: 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate, usually narrowing upward from the truncate or 

 somewhat cordate base, not decurrent upon the petiole, 1 ft. long or 

 more, scarcely undulate, usually acute : panicle narrow, elongated, nearly 

 leafless: pedicels slender, % J in. long, obscurely jointed near the 

 base: valves broadly cordate, with a very shallow sinus, becoming about 

 % in. broad, often denticulate near the base: achenes 1% lines long. 

 Frequent in marshy places. 



* * Glabrous perennials wilh reddish usually dioecious flowers; valves 



not grain-bearing; leaves mostly either broad and rounded, or 



hastate, sparingly veined; herbage tender and acid. 



9. E. ACETOSEI/DA, L. Stems erect from running rootstocks, slender, 

 6 18 in. high: leaves oblong- to linear-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 1 3 

 in. long, usually hastate, the lobes often toothed: panicle naked, long and 

 narrow; fl. dioecious, small, red, in loose fascicles; pedicels short, jointed 

 at top: achene small, ovate- triquetrous, % line long. Very common. 



3. VIBO, Medic. Annual herbs with alternate leaves, and axillary 

 solitary or clustered unisexual flowers. Staminate perianth 56 parted; 

 segments equal, spreading. Stamens 4 6; filaments filiform. Fertile 

 perianth with urceolate tube and 6 unequal lobes in 2 series, the whole 

 accrescent in fruit and indurated; the outer lobes spreading and spines- 

 cent, the inner plane, erect-connivent. Fruit a triquetrous achene 

 enclosed in the tube of the perianth but free from it. Seed subterete. 



1. V. AUSTRAI/LS (Steinh.). Glabrous; the stout and rigid prostrate 

 branches 12 ft. long: leaves triangular-ovate, entire, 2 in. long; at base 

 abruptly narrowed to a long petiole: staminate $. often clustered at the 

 end of a peduncle; the pistillate sessile: fructiferous perianth }>$% in. 

 long, thick and almost woody; outer lobes broadly subulate and thorn - 

 like r the inner broadly ovate, mucronate. Native of S. Africa and 

 Australia; adventive on our sea-beaches* 



