30 DR. H. F. HANOE'b STIPPLBMElfT TO 



India, in the Malay archipelago, in Formosa, and perhaps in 

 Japan. This difiers in nothing from tlie common European B. 

 mariUmm, Linn., save that the inner perigone-segments are half 

 as large again, and have only one instead of tvro long setaceous 

 teeth on each side below the middle. 



30. Polygonum intemiptum, Bunffe; Meissn. in DC. Prod. xiv. 111. 

 In ditches and wet places. Extends to the north of China, 

 but is not recorded from elsewhere. Possibly, as suggested by 

 Prof. Meissner, a depauperated form of P. mimis, Huds. 



♦Polygonum perfoUatum, Linn. 



The achenium of this plant is completely enclosed in, and ad- 

 heres at its base to, the very fleshy accrescent perigone, which 

 has become of a deep indigo-blue colour. On account of this 

 character, and also because the radicle is much longer than in 

 any other known species, this has been raised to geneijc rank 

 under the name of Chylocalya! by Hasskarl, whose view is adopted 

 by F. Schmidt (in Maxim. Prim. PI. Amur. 236), Miquel (PI. 

 Ind. Bat. i. 1012), and latterly by Meissner (in IMiq. Ann. Mus. 

 Bot. Lugd.-Bat. ii. 65). But the latter character can scarcely 

 be considered of sufficient importance to found a genus on, and 

 the extent to which the perigone becomes changed in fruit varies 

 a good deal in different Poh/gona. In P. chinense, Linn., for in- 

 stance, when growing in good soil, it not only becomes quite bac- 

 cate, but acquires a blue colour also. Instead of creating this into a 

 new genus, I believe it would be better, as suggested by Perd. v. 

 Mueller (Fragm. Phytogr. Austr. iv. 131 ; Veget. of Chath. Isl. 

 50), to reunite Muehlenheckia with Polygonum, from which there 

 are no characters to distinguish it but the fleshy fruiting peri- 

 gone, the fringed or papillose stigmas, and the unisexual flowers. 

 So far as regards the latter distinction, no great stress can well 

 be laid on it, unless we are prepared in the allied genus Bumex 

 to separate the Docks from the Sorrels, which groups, indeed, 

 seem to me both in sensible properties and character more 

 distict, inter se, than Poh/gonmn and Muehlenheckia. With re- 

 spect to the succulent perigone, this is absent in M. polyhotrya, 

 Meissn., M. Oimninglicmii, P. v. MuelL, and M. polygonoides, 

 P. V. Muell. ; whilst the degree of fimbriation of the stigmas is 

 very variable, scarcely observable in some of the South -American 

 species, and absent in M. Oumiinghamii, which is intermediate 

 between the two genera. 



