46 



LEAFLETS. 



name of Polygonum Hariwrightii ; most of the species exhibit- 

 ing salverform ocrese, this organ consisting of the usual thin 

 sheath surmounted by a distinct herbaceous spreading border. 

 The type of this group bears the marks subjoined. 



P. Hartwkightii (Gray), Greene, Leafl. i. 24. Low densely 

 leafy stems with short internodes of less than in inch, naked 

 for one-third their length, otherwise invested by the ocrese, 

 these appressed-bristly-hairy, the limb bristly-ciliate ; leaves 

 oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 3 J to 5 inches long, acutish at both 

 ends, glabrous above, or with a few hair-points toward the mi- 

 nutely spinulose-serrulate margin, beneath glabrous except some 

 scattered spinulose hairs along the midvein ; both peduncle and 

 bracts of the oval spike minutely and sparsely hirtellous. 



Original specimens from Penn Yan, N. Y., by Dr. Wright, 

 justify the above diagnosis. Quite the same has been distributed 

 from Pownal, Vt., by Mr. Bggleston, and from near Lake Grin- 

 nell, N". J., by Porter & Britton. 



P. ABSCISSA. Size and habit of P. Hartwrightii, with similar 

 leaf-outline but leaves more spreading, their pubescence very 

 different, upper face sparsely strigose, the hairs more copious 

 along midvein and veinlets, marginal hairiness strong but ap- 

 pressed, midvein and veinlets beneath either merely muricate- 

 scabrous or the murications bearing each a long hair : ocrese 

 short, thin, almost hyaline, terminating very obliquely and with 

 no trace of herbaceous border ; peduncles of the oval spikes 

 short, stout, hirtellous ; bracts also strigose or hirtellous. 



Chelmsford, Massachusetts, 20 Sept., 1885, C. W. Swan, in my 

 herbarium, labelled P. Hartwrightii and imitating that, but dif- 

 fering from it eatirely as to nature of pubescence, as well as by 

 the oblique wholly sheathing ocrese. 



P. ASCLBPIADEA. Terrestrial state ; flowers unknown. Stout, 

 decumbent, the several tufted stems a foot long, densely leafy ; 

 nodes not swollen, internodes only f inch long, completely in- 

 vested by the cylindric striate hirsute sheaths, these all with a 

 very broad spreading foliaceous erose and hirsute-ciliate border ; 

 leaves apparently sessile, the petioles not produced, lanceolate, 

 acute, 3 inches long, glabrous on both faces, only the midvein 



