452 THE DAPHNE TAMILT. 



10. VTaterpepper Polygonum. Polygonum Hydropiper, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 989.) 



Stature and foliage nearly as in the Persicaria P., but a more slender 

 plant, often decumbent or even creeping at the base, the stipules more 

 fringed at the top, the leaves narrower, and the flowers in slender spikes, 

 often 2 or 3 inches long, more or less nodding, the clusters of flowers almost 

 all distinct, and the lower ones often distant and axillary. Perianths, and 

 often the bracts and stipules or other parts of the plant, dotted with small 

 glands, and the whole plant is more or less acrid or biting to the taste. 



In wet ditches, and on the edges of ponds and streams, throughout 

 Europe and central and Eussian Asia to the Arctic regions. Abundant in 

 England and Ireland, more rare in the Scotch Highlands. Fl. smnmer and 

 autumn. 



11. Slender Polygonum. Polygonum minus, Huds. . 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1043.) 



Very near the Waterpepper P., and probably a mere variety. It is 

 usually a smaller plant, with rather smaller flowers, in closer, although 

 slender spikes, and has neither the glandular perianths nor the biting flavour 

 of that species. 



In ditches and waste places, on roadsides, etc., over the whole range of 

 the Waterpepper P. In Britain, not so common as that species, and 

 scarcely extends into Scotland. Fl. summer and atdumn. The smaller, 

 most distinct form is usually found in drier situations. When growing in 

 richer, wet situations, it can only be distinguished from the Waterpepper P. 

 by the absence of the glands on the perianth. This form has been pub- 

 lished as a species, under the name of P. mite (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2867). 

 It is not improbable that further observation may show that this and the 

 three last Polygonums are aU varieties of one species. 



LXIII. THE DAPHNE FAMILY. THTMELEACE^. 



A family limited in Britain to the single genus Daphne. 

 The exotic genera associated with it differ chiefly in the number 

 of the stamens and in the number and form of the divisions 

 of the perianth, or in the consistence of the fruit. 



The species are rather numerous in southern Africa and AustraUa, in- 

 cluding among the latter the Pimelceas of our greenhouses, with a few from 

 the tropics or the northern hemisphere. 



I. DAPHNE. DAPHNE. 



Shrubs, or, in some exotic species, trees, with alternate or rarely oppo- 

 site entire leaves, and no stipules ; the flowers either coloured or some- 

 times green, either lateral, or, in exotic species, terminal. Perianth in- 

 ferior, deciduous, with a distinct tube and a spreading 4-cleft limb. Sta- 

 mens 8, inserted in the top of the tube. Ovary free within the tube, 

 l-ceUed, with a single pendulous ovule. Style exceedingly short, with a 

 capitate stigma. Fruit a berry or drupe, the endocarp forming a slightly 

 crustaceous, 1-seeded stone. 



