118 Mr. Babington's Descriptions of Indian Species 



F. esculentum. Moench. Meth. 290. Meisn. in Wail. iii. 63. 

 Polygonum Fagopyrum. Linn. Sp. PI. i. 522. Meisn. Mon. 61. 



Stem upright, hollow, angular, downy, particularly on the side next to the 

 leaves. Leaves stalked, the upper ones sessile, hastate- or cordate-triangu- 

 lar, the lower angles bluntish, the nerves slightly downy. Stipules short, 

 with few simple nerves, bluntly pointed externally. Floivers in terminal 

 and axillary long-stalked panicles, sometimes lax and very few flowered, 

 in others condensed and many-flowered, the pedicels not jointed. Ft'uit 

 with ovate-triangular or lanceolate faces, often slightly concave, longer 

 than broad, and transversely marked with very minute striae, trigonous, 

 the angles more or less acutely keeled, twice as long as the obtuse 

 calyx. 



I have not been able to detect the usual joint in the pedicels of either this 

 species, F. emarginatum, or F. rotundatum, and am inclined to think that the 

 flowers in all three are really sessile, the apparent pedicel being only the pro- 

 longed base of the calyx. The proportion between the length and breadth of 

 the fruit appears to be veiy variable in this species ; in some instances the 

 faces are nearly as broad as long, and in others they are so much lengthened 

 as to become truly lanceolate. 



Cultivated in the hills for food. 



3. F. emarginatum. 



Floribus paniculatis parvis, pedicello elongato, achenio trigone angulis alatis 

 integris calyce obtuso dupl6 longiore faciebus ovatis longioribus quam 

 latis, foliis petiolatis triangularibus acutis angulis inferioribus rotundatis. 



P. emarginatum. Roth.? Cat. Bot. i. 48. Don?, Prod. 73. Meisn.? Mon. 62. 



Stem upright, hollow, striated, downy. Leaves stalked, triangular, the two 

 lower angles rounded, the terminal angle elongated and acute, nerves 

 slightly downy. Stipules short, without nerves, blunt. Panicles alter- 

 nate, terminal and axillary, upon long stalks, which are downy above ; 

 the flowers small, with long pedicels, which are not jointed ; the segments 

 of the calyx blunt. Fruit trigonous, the angles winged, with ovate faces, 

 which are longer than broad, smooth and opake. 



