70 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 



[Plate 22.] 

 22. Polygonum fusiforme Greene. 

 Polygonum fusiforme Greene, Erythea, 1 : 259 (1893). 



Perennial, stout, nearly glabrous. Stems 9-20 dm. long, decumbent or assurgent, 

 conspicuously enlarged above the nodes, more or less geniculate, dark red; internodes 

 6-8 cm. long when mature, papillose below the nodes; leaves lanceolate or narrowly 

 lanceolate, 2-12 cm. long, 1-2 cm. broad, light green, acute or acuminate at both 

 ends, subsessile, glabrous, more or less revolute ; ocreae cylindric or funnelform, 1-2 cm. 

 long, membranous and brittle, ciliolate or naked, the delicate ribs somewhat ciliate; 

 inflorescence terminal, nearly simple or paniculate, the ultimate divisions being spicate 

 racemes; racemes linear-oblong, 1-3 cm. long, not dense; ocreolae 2-2.5 mm. long, 

 tinged with pink or rose color, nearly naked or ciliolate; pedicels about 2 mm. long, 

 angled; calyx rose-colored or pinkish, 2-2.5 mm. long, four-parted to below the middle, 

 the segments broadly oblong or nearly orbicular, obtuse, sometimes conspicuously punc- 

 tate, the outer ones hooded at the apex and narrower than the inner; stamens four 

 or five, included; style two-parted, included; achene ovoid-oblong, lenticular, 2-2.3 

 mm. long, thick-pointed, dark brown, smooth and shining, the angles obtuse, the 

 faces plane. 



Western Arizona near the Needles. 



