306 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Polypnea. 
triangulari-ovatis apice attenuato-obtusis marginibus utrinque in spinam brevem v. subelongatam crassius- 
culam productis.— Meisn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 73. E. Mulleri, Meisn. I. c. 61. {Gunn, 403, 1231.) 
Hab. Common in marshes in the northern parts of the Island : near Launceston, Georgetown, etc. — 
(Fl. Nov.) 
Distrib. Victoria, Mueller, Robertson, etc. 
Root creeping, and throwing up numerous stems, so that the plants cover the ground in large patches. — Stems 
2-3 feet high, simple or sparingly branched. leaves very narrow, a span to a foot long, blunt or acuminate, with 
flat or crisped margins, and the base blunt, sharp, or almost cordate, always insequilateral. Lower whorls of flowers 
axillary. Floicers unisexual. Valves of the fruit triangular, ending in a blunt, narrow point, the margins produced 
into a long or short, blunt or sharp tooth. 
Gen. II. POLYGONUM, L. 
Mores hermaphroditi. Perianthium 4-5-partitum, laciniis fructu appressis haud auctis. Stamina 4-8, 
ssepius 8. Ovarium compressum v. trigonum. Nux calyce sicco immersa, trigona v. compressa. — Herbse, 
rarius frutices; foliis alternis, sessililus petiokUieve, basi r. medio stipula ocreiforma adnalis ; floribus 
albis v. rubris, solitariis v. spicatis, rarius racemosis ; pedicellis articulatis. 
Of this large and cosmopolitan genus there are about fifteen known Australian species, several of which are 
certainly peculiar to Australia and Tasmania, but some will no doubt prove to be varieties of widely-diffused 
species. As a genus, Polygonum is known from Rumex by its different habit, and by the leaflets of the perianth 
not becoming dilated over the fruit, and from MueMenbechia by the perianth not becoming fleshy and baccate. The 
stamens (usually eight) vary in number in the different species, and sometimes in each ; and the nuts, though gene- 
rally constantly flat or trigonous in each species, in some vary also. (Name from iroXvs, many, and yon, a joint; 
in allusion to the jointed stems.) 
as (Huds. PL Angl. i. 148) ; glaber, caule gracili decumbente demum erecto, 
ocreis longe ciliatis, foliis breve petiolatis lanceolatis glabris marginibus minute ciliolatis, spicis solitariis 
subracemosisve laxiusculis erectis, bracteis breve turbinatis truncatis pedicellos superantibus ore glabris v. 
ciliatis, staminibus 5-8, nuce lenticulari v. trigona nitida.— Meisn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. Ill ; Engl. Bot. t. 
1043. P. decipiens, Br. Prodr. 420 ; Meisn. 1. c. P. prostratum, A. Cunn. Prodr. Fl. N. Zeal., non Br. ; 
Nob. in Fl. K Zeal. i. 208. {Gunn, 40.) 
Hab. Common in the northern parts of the Island, about Launceston, etc.— (PI. Nov.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia, from the tropics to Victoria; Swan Eiver; New Zealand; all 
Europe; temperate and subtropical Asia, and North Africa. 
Some of my Tasmanian specimens agree with Brown's character of P. decipiens in the glabrous bracts, but in 
others this organ is strongly ciliated ; all have trigonous nuts, though P. minus has, in New Zealand and in other 
countries, more frequently compressed nuts. The leaves are scabrid, with minute cilia on the margin, which are 
sometimes almost obsolete.— A slender, glabrous herb, a span to 18 inches long. Stems slender, procumbent, as- 
cending, simple or rarely branched. Ocrea with long cilia at the mouth. Leaves lanceolate, 2-3 inches long, 
glabrous on both surfaces. Spikes solitary or subracemose, strict, erect, about 1| inch long. Flowers rather lax. 
Bracts cuneate, truncate, as long as the pedicels. 
2. Polygonum subsessile (Br. Prodr. 419); caule gracili laxe ramoso elongato ascendente ap- 
prise stngoso, ocreis pilosis strigoso-ciliatis, foliis subsessilibus lanceolatis obtusiusculis utrinque appresse 
^ubstngosis, spicis cylmdraceis pedunculatis solitariis subracemosisve, bracteis cuneatis ciliatis, floribus 
o-andns glabris, nuce lenticulari turgida.-if« M . in DC. Prodr. xiv. 113 {Gunn 42 ) 
