POLTGONACE^. (buckwheat FAMILY.) 417 



{Dr. Mead), either almost glabrous or strigose-hirsute ; leaves short-petioled, 

 varying from elongated-lanceolate to lance-ovate and taper-pointed ; spikes 

 cylindrical (l'-3'long) often in pairs. — Common. (Eu.) 



§ 3. TOVARIA, Adans. Calyx rather herbaceous {greenish), unequaUy i-parted: 

 stamens 5 : styles 2, distinct, rigid and persistent on the smooth lenticular ache- 

 nium : cotyledons oblong, accumbent ; perennial : flowers loosely disposed in naked 

 long and slender spikes. 



12. P. Virginitoum, L. Almost smooth ; stem terete, upright (2° -4° 

 high) ; leaves ovate, or the upper ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, rounded at the 

 base, short-petioled, rough-ciliate (3' - 6' long) ; sheaths cylindrical, truncate, 

 hairy and fringed ; flowers 1-3 from each bract, somewhat cui-ved, the styles 

 in fruit obliquely bent down, minutely hooked at the tip. — Thickets in rich 

 soil : common. 



§ 4. PSETJDO-POLYGON]&LLA. Characters of the next section, except that the 

 sheaths are truncate, naked and rigid ; the flowers rac&med, solitary from each trun- 

 cate brad ; pedicels jointed below the middle ; calyx expanding and petaloid. 



13. P. articulitum, L. (Jointweed.) Annual; stem upright, panic- 

 ulately branched (4'- 12' high), slender; leaves linear-thread-form, deciduous; 

 flowers rose-color, crowded in slender and spike-like panicled racemes, on re- 

 curved pedicels twice the length of the crowded joint-like bracts ; stamens 8 ; 

 achenium triangular, smooth and shining. (Polygonella articulata, Meisner, 

 but has not the enlarged connivent inner sepals, nor the axile embryo of that 

 genus.) — Dry, sandy soil ; along the coast and the Great Lakes, and in inter- 

 mediate places in New York. — Singular for its many-jointed spikes or racemes, 

 which are 1 ' - 3' long ; the lower bracts tooth-pointed on one side. Three inner 

 filaments dilated at the base. 



§ 4. AVICULARIA, Meisn. Calyx more or less petal-like, 5-parted: stamens 

 3 - 8 ; tJie filaments avjl-shaped, 3 of them broader at the base : stigmas 3, glo- 

 bose, nearly sessile : achenium S-sided : cotyledons incumbent : albumen Iwrny : 

 flowers inconspicuous, greenish-white, 2 or Z together or sometimes solitary in the 

 axils of the smail leaves, appearing nearly sessile, sometimes more or less spiked 

 along the leafless summits of the branches : ours all annuals or nearly so : sheaths 

 scarious, usually 2 - 3-clefl or cut fringed and torn. 



14. P. aviculSxe, L. {Knotgrass. Goose-gkass. Dook-weed.) 

 Prostrate or spreading ; leaves sessile, lanceolate or oblong, pale ; stamens chiefly 

 5 in tlie American, 8 in the European plant; achenium dull, minutely granular 

 under a lens, enclosed in the calyx. — The commonest weed, in yards, waste 

 places, &c. (Eu.) 



Var. er6ctu.m, Roth. Stems upright or ascending; leaves broader (ob- 

 long or oval) and larger. (P. ere'ctum, L.) — In richer soil or more shaded 

 places : common. 



15. P. maritimum, L. (Coast Knotgkass.) FroatTate, glaucous, -with 

 a hard and sometimes woody and perennial root; stems very sbort-jointed ; 

 scarious sheaths large ; leaves thickened, elliptical-lanceolate or narrow oblong ; 

 flowers larger than in the last; achenium very smooth and shining. (P. glaucuni, 



27 



