156 MEMOIRS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 



[Plate 65.] 

 66. Polygonum cristatum Engelmann & Gray. 



Polygonum cristatum Engelmann & Gray, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 5 : 259 (1847) ; 

 Meisner in DC. Prodr. 14: 136. 



Perennial, slender, very scurfy, somewhat rigid. Stem twining, 5-20 dm. long, 

 more or less branched, somewhat channeled and twisted ; leaves ovate, triangular-ovate 

 or triangular, 1-6 cm. long, .5-3.5 cm. broad, varying from cordate to truncate, acute or 

 acuminate, undulate and obscurely eroded, short-petioled ; petioles slender, 1-2 cm. long ; 

 ocreae funnelform or somewhat cylindric, 2-4 mm. long, hardly oblique ; 'flowers in axil- 

 lary racemes ; racemes 2-4: cm. long, loosely flowered, naked, interrupted ; pedicels 5 

 mm. long, very slender, articulated near the middle; calyx greenish white, 4-5 mm. 

 long, five-parted to near the base, the three outer divisions keeled and winged in fruit, 

 the wings more or less incised ; stamens eight, included ; styles united to the summit ; 

 stigmas three; achene triquetrous, 2.5-3 mm. long, oblong, black, smooth and shining. 



Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and southeastern New York. 



