37 



reniform, quite entire, smooth: achenium 1 -celled, 1- seeded, 

 indehisceht, closely covered by the increased dry or seldom 

 baccate, sometimes winged calyx, enclosed or rarely exserted, 

 2 — 3 — 4-cornered, angles sometimes winged-like, entire, 

 toothed or echinate : pericarp thin, crustaceous or membrana- 

 ceous, very smooth, shining, or minutely dotted or grained 

 and striated : seed erect, 2 — 3-cornered or terete, sometimes 

 furrowed with 3 — 6 lobes : albumen copious, mealy : embryo 

 antitropal : radicle superior. — Herbs, rarely shrubs : leaves 

 alternate with thin scariose stipules, forming a sheath round 

 the stem within the leaf-stalk : flowers small, sometimes 

 coloured, clustered in the axils of the leaves or on spikes or 

 racemes forming terminal panicles. 



GENUS I. POLYGONUM. 



Octandria Trigynta. Sex : Syst .- 



Deriv. 'From Polys, many, and Gonu, a knee, alluding to the 

 jointed stems. 



Gen. Chae. Flowers hermaphrodite : calyx 5- (rarely 4 — 8-) 

 parted, lobes entire, with quincuncial aestivation, all of the same 

 shape, outer ones 2 — 3-keeled, concave or winged at the back : 

 stamens 8, rarely 1 — 4, free, inserted at the bottom of the calyx 

 and alternating with its lobes : filaments subulate, persistent : 

 ovary free, compressed, or 3-cornered : styles 2 — 3, filiform, more 

 or less connate, often very short : stigmas capitate, rarely mush- 

 room-shaped, entire : achenium enclosed in the dry calyx, lenticu- 

 lar or pyramidately 3-cornered, very often acuminated with the 

 base of the styles, angles acute or obtuse, entire, wingless : seed 

 sessile. — Herbaceous or perennial, rarely suflFruticose plants with- 

 out tendrils : stems usually knotty or fistular : ochreae uncoloured 

 or more rarely herbaceous, ciliated or naked, or 2-parted or torn 

 and many-cleft : floral bracts usually without leaves : leaves scat- 

 tered, feather-nerved, cordate or sagittate, very rarely pinna- 

 tisect, often dotted with glands, and sometimes spotted : flowers 

 axillary, solitary or aggregate, or racemose, spiked, capitate- or 

 panicled, small, white or red : pedicels jointed, usually fascicled. 



(1) P. BAEBAITJM. (Willd.) 



Ident. Dec. prod. XIV. p. 104.— Eoxb. flor. Ind. II. p. 289. 

 Engrav. Wight's Icon. t. 1798. 



Spec. CnAB. Spikes twiggy, sometimes paired, often panicled, 

 continuous, compact-flowered : bracts turbinate, imbricating. 



