3(;) memoies feom the depaetment of botany of columbia college. 



[Plate 2.] 

 2. Polygonum viviparum Linnaeus. 



Polygonu'iii viviparum Linnaeus, Sp. PL 360 (1753); Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 2: 639; 

 Persoon, Syn. 1: 439; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 271; Eaton, Man. 371; Torrey, Fl. 1: 401, 

 Comp. 171; ]\Ieisner, INIonog. 52, in DC. Prodr. 14: 124; Chamisso & Schlechtendal, 

 Linnaea, 3 : 38 ; Beck, Bot. 301 ; Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am. 2 : 30 ; Eaton & Wright, N. A. 

 Bot. Ed. 8, 367; A. Gray, Man. 368; Wood, CI. Bk. Ed. 41, 475, Am. Bot. and Fl. 283; 

 S. Watson, Bot. Calif. 2: 15; Coulter, Man. Bot. Rocky Mt. Reg. 321. 



Polyyovam viviparum var. subacaule Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 271 (1814). 



Perennial, more or less glaucescent throughout, glabrous, except some occasional 

 hispidulous pubescence on the lower surface of the leaves. Rootstock generally bulb-like, 

 chaffy; stems solitary or sometimes several together, erect, .2-3 dm. high, simple, some- 

 what channeled above; radical leaves oblong or lanceolate, 2-10 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. 

 broad, acute or acutish, cordate, subcordate or sometimes acuminate and rather unsym- 

 raetrical at the base; petioles slender, 3-10 cm. long; cauline leaves narrowly lanceolate 

 or linear, 2-8 cm. long, the lower more or less petioled, the upper sessile, all often revo- 

 lute and apparently crenulate by the enlarged and prominent nerves ; mid-rib broad and 

 conspicuous on the lower surface of the leaves ; ocreae narrowly cylindric, 1-6 cm. long, 

 clasping the stem below, gradually expanding towards the obliquely opened summit, 

 entire, but more or less broken at the brittle top; inflorescence consisting of a single 

 terminal spicate raceme; raceme narrowly-cylindric, 2-10 cm. long, .5-1 cm. broad, 

 rather densely flowered above, bearing a number of bulblets about the base ; bulblets 

 ovoid-conic, 3-5 mm. long, dark brown ; ocreolae obovate, 2-3 mm. long, entire or dentate 

 at summit, thin, acuminate or cuspidate by the excurrent rib ; pedicels 1-2 mm. long ; 

 calyx about 3 mm. long, colored, pale rose color or white, five-parted to near the base, 

 the segments three-nerved, ovate or obovate, undulate; stamens eight, exserted; style 

 about 3 mm. long, deeply three-parted, exserted; achene triquetrous, 1-1.5 mm. long, 

 oblong, dark-brown, granular and dull. 



Alpine summits of the White Mountains, in the Lake Superior Region, northward 

 to Greenland and Iceland and in the alpine parts of the mountains of Colorado, through 

 Utah and Nevada, to Southern Oregon and northward. Also in Europe and Asia. 



