142 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 



[Plate 58.] 



58. Polygonum Californicum Meisner. 



Polygonum Californicum Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 100 (1856); Bentham, PL 

 Hartw. 334; S. Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. 14: 295, Bot. Calif. 2: 13; Behr, Fl. San Fr. 

 275; Greene, Fl. Francis. 135, Man. Bay Keg. Bot. 41. 



Annual, glabrous, very slender and wiry. Stem erect, .8-2 dm. long, flexuous, 

 nearly simple or branched throughout, smooth and shining, sometimes sparingly scurfy, 

 reddish, somewhat four-angled, the branches spreading or ascending; leaves narrowly 

 linear or nearly filiform, 1-3 cm. long, subulate-tipped, with two ribs developed along 

 each margin parallel to the midrib, not articulated to the ocreae, the upper reduced to 

 bracts ; ocreae funnelform, 3-4 mm. long, soon conspicuously lacerate, the segments sub- 

 ulate, rather weak ; inflorescence consisting of axillary and terminal spikes ; spikes slen- 

 der, 1-7 cm. long, mostly terminal, covered by the imbricated ocreae above; flowers 

 sessile and solitary in each axil; calyx 2.2 mm. long, five-cleffc to the middle, at length 

 exceeding the ocreae; stamens eight, included; style .1-2 mm. long, three-parted, appar- 

 ently formed by the splitting of the apex of the ovary and achene; achene triquetrous, 

 2 mm. long, narrowly-oblong, acuminate, included, dark brown or nearly black, mostly 

 smooth and shining. 



From the Napa and Sacramento region of California northward to Josephine county, 

 Oregon. 



