THE POLYGONUM FAMILY. 



slender, with very few distant leaves, 

 sometimes short and densely matted, 

 with the small leaves much crowded. 

 A maritime variety, distinguished under 

 the name of P. littorale, with rather 

 thicker leaves and larger flowers and 

 nuts, has been sometimes confounded 

 with young or luxuriant specimens ot 

 the sea P., but has not the shining nuts 

 of that species. 



Fig. 861. 



2. Sea Polygonum, 



Polygonum maritimum, Linn. 

 (Fig. 862.) 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2804.) 



When flowering the first year of it3 

 growth, or when luxuriant, this species 

 is distinguished from the Knotweed P. 

 by its thicker stems, larger and thicker, 

 more glaucous leaves, larger scarious 

 stipules, brown and much veined at the 

 base, larger flowers, and especially by 

 the nuts, often 2 lines long, projecting 

 beyond the perianth, and very smooth 

 and shining. Older specimens, grown 

 in dryer sands, have a woody, perennial 

 stock, with short, thick branches, com- 

 pletely covered by the stipules, the in- 

 ternodes being all very short. 



In maritime sands, on most of the sea- 

 coasts of the northern hemisphere, and 

 here and there also in the south. Com- 

 mon on the British coasts. FL end of 

 summer, and autumn. It is considered 

 by American botanists as a variety of the Knotweed P. The P. Roberti 

 or P. Bail (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2805) is rather a young or a luxuriant 

 state of this plant than a distinct variety, although those names are 

 sometimes given to the maritime variety of the Knotiveed P. 



Fig. 862. 



