BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonaceae. 
BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonaceae. 
A large family, widely distributed, mostly herbs or low 
shrubs, with toothless leaves, often with stipules sheathing 
the swollen joints of the stem. The small flowers have no 
petals, the calyx usually resembles a corolla and has from 
three to six divisions. There are from four to nine stamens 
and a superior, mostly triangular, ovary, with two or three 
styles or stigmas, becoming a dry, one-seeded fruit, gener- 
ally brown or black. The kind from which flour is made is 
cultivated from northern Asia, and the name Buckwheat, 
from the German, means ‘“‘beech-wheat,” because the 
grain resembles minute beech-nuts. There are several 
common “‘weeds”’ belonging to this family, such as Dock, 
Sorrel, and Smartweed. 
Chorizanthes are low herbs, with branching stems, 
without stipules, the leaves forming a rosette at the base 
and withering early. The small flowers have six sepals 
and are clustered in small heads, usually one flower in each 
papery involucre, which has from two to six teeth, with 
bristles at the tips; stamens usually nine, on the base of the 
perianth; styles three, with round-top stigmas. 
An odd, dry-looking plant, making 
Turkish Rugging pretty patches of purplish color on dry 
horizénth ; : ; 
i seme ; mesas. The stiff, roughish, purplish stem 
Piak is a few inches tall, springing from a few 
Spring dull-green or reddish root-leaves, branch- 
California 
ing abruptly and widely towards the top 
and bearing many small flowers. The involucres are 
deep-red or purple, with very prickly teeth, the sepals 
bright-pink, prettily fringed with white and striped with 
deeper color, and the filaments are long and threadlike, 
with purple anthers. The flowers are exceedingly pretty 
when closely examined, though too small to be very effec- 
tive, but the plant as a whole is conspicuous both in color 
and form. C. staticoides is similar, but the sepals are not 
fringed. 
86 
