64 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
beneath. Ochre brown at the base, with about six simple nerves, 
white and at length laciniate at the apex. Flowers in lateral fascicles 
of 2 to 4or rarely solitary, combined into terminal simple or branched 
interrupted spikelike racemes leafy throughout; the lower fascicles so 
far separate that they scarcely form part of the spike. Pedicels erect, 
shorter than the nut, articulated immediately below the base of the 
perianth. Perianth coloured or subherbaceous, 5-partite, scarcely 
enlarged in fruit, subtruncate at the base; segments with a prominent 
dorsal nerve. Stamens 8. Styles 3, very short, free. Nut about 
as long as the perianth, ovate-triquetrous, striate-shagreened, dim or 
rather dim, chestnut or brown. Plant not glandular. 
Common Knotgrass. 
French, Renouée des petits oiseauw. German, Vogel-Knéterich. 
FORM 1*—Polygonum (aviculare) agrestinum. Jord. 
P. agrestinum. Jord. Bor. Fl. du Centr. de Fr. Vol. IL p. 599. Norm. Trans. 
Tyneside Nat. Field Club, Vol. V. p. 142. 
P. aviculare. Linn. Herb. (!). 
Stem suberect or ascending; branches spreading-ascending or diffuse. 
Leaves oval or elliptical-oval, subacute, about as long as the full-grown 
internodes. Ochrer short, brown at the base, dull silvery white 
and at length laciniate at the apex. Perianth indistinctly veined, white 
or pale red. Nut rather shorter than the perianth, pale chestnut, dim. 
Plant yellowish green. 
In corn-fields and cultivated ground. Common, and generally 
distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland (2). Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Stem 9 inches to 2 feet high, stiff, the central one longer than the 
others, and erect or ascending. Leaves 1 to 2 inches long; those at 
the extremity of the branches rather approximate, but those on the 
main stem, when the internodes have grown to their full length, about 
equal to them. Flowers shortly stalked, 4 inch long, green, with the 
i 
* The P. aviculare of Linnwus probably includes several subspecies ; but how many 
of the forms described be really hereditarily distinct, we have at present no means of 
knowing. I have notventured, therefore, to term them subspecies, although throwing 
them into that form. Those enumerated here were first pointed out as British by 
the Rev. A. M. Norman in the fifth volume of the “Transactions of the Tyneside 
Naturalists’ Field lub.” 
+ I have not seen Irish specimens, but this form is so common, in England and 
Scotland, that it probably occurs in Ireland. 
