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72 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
amongst clothes no moth will touch them. Its bruised leaves are still used in 
villages instead of a mustard poultice, and they are put into the mouth to cure tooth- 
ache. It is said to be a powerful diuretic, and a water distilled from it was formerly 
used in some nephritic complaints. A decoction of this plant will dye wool of a 
good yellow colour, if the material is first dipped in a solution of alum. 
SPECIES VUL—POLYGONUM MINUS. Huds. 
Pure MCCXXXV. . 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2358. 
Annual. Stem commonly geniculate and rooting at the base, then 
erect and ascending, slightly smaller at the nodes, branched. Leaves 
subsessile, narrowly-lanceolate or elliptical-strapshaped or strapshaped. 
Ochre rather tight, all ciliated with long and short weak bristles. 
Racemes spike-like, solitary at the extremity of the stem and branches, 
racemosely or racemoso-paniculately arranged, rather short, slender, 
lax, interrupted and leafy at the base, continuous and leafless at the 
apex, straight, erect or ascending. Pedicels about as long as the nut, 
articulated immediately beneath the perianth, without glands. Perianth 
coloured, sprinkled with very minute pale glands towards the base 
only, without prominent veins. Stamens 5. Styles 2 or 3, combined 
half-way up. Nut of the 2-styled flowers ovate, plano-convex, nearly 
smooth, shining; those of the 3-styled flowers bluntly trigonous. 
Leaves destitute of superficial glands, ochree glabrous, except at the 
base. Plant insipid. 
In marshes and wet places, especially in shallow drains. Rather 
scarce and local, but generally distributed throughout England. In 
Scotland apparently confined to Lochar Moss, Dumfries. Generally 
distributed, but rare in Ireland. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Stem 3 to 18 inches long, usually more or less decumbent, branched, 
principally from the base, as in P. Hydropiper. Leaves much narrower 
than in that species, with scarcely any stalk, and with the broadest 
part a little nearer the middle of the leaf; the longest 1 to 2 inches long, 
bristly-serrulate, as in_the preceding species. Ochrex rather small, 
membranous, the floral ones ciliated like the lower ones and often 
purple. Perianth } inch long, white or rose. Nut 5); inch long, and 
consequently much smaller than that of P. Hydropiper, from which 
it also differs in being shining, and scarcely at all shagreened. Plant 
pale green. The perianths and ochre are bar, described as destitute 
of glands; but in all the recent specimens I have examined I have 
found on their base numerous very minute pale meal-like glands ; there 
