38G roLTGONACE^. (buckwheat family.) 



long as the slender recurved pedicels, one or all more or less prominently grain- 

 bearing. (R. divaricatus, EU.) — Waste ground, around dwellings. Introduced. 

 June -Aug. % — Stem 2° -3° high. Lowest leaves 1°- 1^° long, 6' -9' wide, 

 slightly crenate, and wavy on the margins. , 



6. R. pulcher, L. Branches rigid, spreading ; lowest leaves cordate- 

 oblong, somewhat fiddle-shaped, the upper lanceolate, acute ; whorls remote ; 

 valves longer than the thick pedicels, ovate-oblong, rigid, strongly toothed, more 

 or less prominently grain-bearing. — Around Charleston, Elliott. Introduced. 

 June and July. 



7. R. maritiinUS, L. Pubescent ; stem low, diffusely branched ; leaves 

 lanceolate, wavy-margined, the lower ones somewhat cordate or hastate at the 

 base, the upper linear ; whorls compactly crowded in leafy spikes ; valves small, 

 bristly on the margins, nearly covered by the large grain. (R. persicarioides, L.) 

 — Sea-shores, North Carolina, and northward. Aug. and Sept. (3) — Stems 

 6' - 12' high. Spikes yellowish. 



* * Flowers dioecious. Herbs with sow juice. 

 •fr- Calyx not enlarged in fruit. 



8. R. AeetOSella, L. Eoot creeping ; stems low, erect or ascending ; 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate, or linear, entire or hastate-lobed ; panicle slender, leaf- 

 less ; whorls scattered, few-flowered ; valves ovate, grainless, appressed to the 

 achenium. — Old fields and sterile soil, common. June and July. IJ. — Stems 

 6' - 12' long.. Leaves and flowers small. 



H — f- Inner cali/x-lobes dilated in fruit. 



9. R. hastatulus, Baldw. Stems clustered, erect ; leaves glaucous, lance- 

 olate or linear, or the lowest oblong, entire or hastate-lobed ; whorls few-flowered, 

 scattered, or the upper ones crowded ; valves round-cordate, entire, membrana- 

 ceous, reticulated, red or white, grainless. — Dry sands, along the coast and in 

 the middle districts, Florida to South Carolina. May and June. — Stem 1° - 1^° 

 high. Leaves 1' - 2' long, the upper ones mostly entire. 



2. POLYGONELLA, Michx. 



Flowers perfect or diceciously polygamous. Calyx corolla-like, deeply .5-parted 

 or 5-sepalous ; the three inner sepals mostly enlarging and enclosing the 3-angled 

 achenium, glandless. Stamens 8 : anthers roundish. Stigmas 3, capitate. Em- 

 bryo straight, or nearly so, in the centre, or at one side of the mealy albumen. — 

 Smooth and commonly glaucous herbs or shrubs, with slender branching stems, 

 small alternate leaves, and small flowers in spiked racemes. — Sheaths smooth. 

 Bracts imbricated, top-shaped, mostly 1-flowered. Pedicels nodding in fruit 



^ 1. EurOLYGONELLA. Filaments all olilce , suhulate 1 stigmas nearly sessile: 

 Flowers diveciously polygamous : embryo in the centre of the albumen. 



I. P. parvifolia, Michx. Shrubby and diffusely branched at the base; 

 leaves wedge-shaped or linear-spatulate, vertical ; those on the sterile shoots im- 

 bricated ; sheaths obliquely truncate, pointless ; racemes short, very numerous, 

 somewhat crowded in an oblong or corymbose panicle ; bracts truncate ; flowers 



