MEMOIES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 17 



POLYGONUM Linnaeus. 



Polygonum Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 359 (1753). Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 2: 637; Walter, Fl. 

 Car. 131; Willdenow, Sp. PI. 2: 440; Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 237; Persoon, Syn. 1: 

 439 ; Mu-hlenberg, Cat. 40 ; Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 269 ; Elliott, Bot. S. C. and Ga. 1 : 453 ; 

 Sprengel, Syst. 1: 253; Barton, Comp. Fl. Phila. 1: 186; Torrey, Fl. 400, Comp. 171, 

 Fl. N. Y. 2: 145; Beck, Bot. 300; Meisner, Monog. 1, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5: 11, in DC. 

 Prodr. 14: 83; Darlington, Florula Cest. 48, Fl. Cest. 247; Eaton & Wright, N. A. Bot. 

 367; A. Gray, Man. 386; Wood, CI. Bk. Ed. 41, 473, Am. Bot. and Fl. 282; Chapman, 

 Fl. S. States, 388; Darby, Bot. S. States, 488; S. Watson, Bot. Calif. 2: 10; Behr, Fl. 

 San Fr. 275; Greene, Fl. Francis. 132, Man. Bay. Reg. Bot. 40. 



Herbaceous, sufFrutescent or suffruticose, glabrous, pubescent, glandular or scurfy, 

 jointed plants, annual or perennial by a woody or fleshy rootstock or by creeping stems, 

 terrestrial, amphibious or aquatic. Stem erect, ascending or prostrate, climbing, twin- 

 ing or floating, fleshy, herbaceous or woody, sometimes emersed or immersed, chan- 

 neled or ridged, strict or flexuous, more or less enlarged at the nodes. Leaves alternate, 

 entire, membranous, herbaceous, coriaceous or fleshy, rarely keeled, rather distant, 

 mostly arranged in a ? or | spiral, prominently or obscurely nerved, sometimes glaucous, 

 often glandular-punctate, continuous with or articulated to the ocreae, sometimes re- 

 duced to foliaceous bracts in and about the inflorescence, with stipules in the form of 

 ocreae. Ocreae cylindric or funnel-form, membranous, hyaline, rarely herbaceous, trun- 

 cate or oblique at the summit, often two-parted and at length lacerate, naked, ciliate or 

 fringed with bristles, occasionally fringed at the base ; inflorescence axillary and terminal, 

 consisting of clusters, racemes, or spicate racemes, either solitary, geminate, or paniculate, 

 or rarely of narrow spikes, in Avhich case the flowers are solitar3^' Flowers subtended by 

 ocreae or ocreolae ; pedicels more or less fascicled, short and stout or long and slender, 

 articulated at the base of the calyx, near the middle or near the base, straight and 

 erect or strongly deflexed. Calyx somewhat herbaceous ,or membranous, variously col- 

 ored, persistent, rarely remaining nearly unchanged in fruit, but mostly developing so 

 that it invests the achene, often glandular-punctate, four to six-cleft or four to six-parted, 

 usually five-cleft or five-parted, the segments nearly equal or the outer ones larger, the 

 latter often developing keels or conspicuous wings. Stamens varying from three to nine, 

 usually five or eight, variously disposed on the base of the calyx, the filaments filiform 



