POLYGONACE^E. (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY.) 417 



{Jr. Mead), either almost glabrous or strigose-hirsute ; leaves sbort-petioled, 

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

 cylindrical (1' -3' long) often in pairs. — Common. (Eu.) 



§ 3. TOVARIA, Adans. Calyx rather herbaceous (greenish), unequally 4-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. Virginianum, 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 curved, the styles 

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

 soil : common. 



§ 4. PSEUDO-POLYGONELLA. Characters of the next section, except that the 

 sheaths are truncate, naked and rigid ; the flowers racemed, solitary from each trun- 

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



13. P. articulatum, 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. AVICIjLARIA, Meisn. Calyx more or less petal-like, 5-parted : stamens 

 3 - 8 ; the fllaments avA-shaped, 3 of them bronder at the base : stigmas 3, glo- 

 bose, nearly sessile: achenium 3-sided: cotyledons incumbent: albumen horny: 

 flowers inconspicuous, greenish-white, 2 or 3 together or sometimes solitary in the 

 axils of the small 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. aviculare, L. (Knotgrass. Goose-grass. Door-weed.) 

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

 5 in the 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. erectum, Roth. Stems upright or ascending; leaves broader (ob- 

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

 places : common. 



15. P. maritimum, L. (Coast Knotgrass.) Prostrate, glaucous, with 

 a hard and so/netimes woody and perennial root; stems very short-jointed; 

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

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



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