GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA. 



Polygonum cuspidatum. Siebold and Zuccarini. A tall hardy handsome broad-leaved 

 herbaceous plant from Japan. Flowers green, inconspicuous. Belongs to the order of Buck- 

 wheats {Polygonacea). Introduced by the Horticultural Society about the year 1825. 

 (Fig. 87.) 



We translate the following account of this plant from Professor Morren's statement in the Annates de Gaud, vol. v. 

 p. 461: " Rhizome herbaceous, stem straight, branching, flexible, smooth, round, hollow, spotted with purple. Leaves 

 stalked, truncated or rectilinear at the base, scarcely subcordate, broadly oval, bordered with red or with a transparent 

 edge, cuspidate, smooth on both sides, slightly rough on the under side along the nerves. Stipules obliquely truncate, 

 smooth, naked at the edge, few-nerved, pm'ple, finally becoming torn, deciduous. Panicles axillary, divaricatingly 

 branched ; rachis flexible ; branches slender, scurfy haired ; bracts ochreiform, obliquely cuspidate-truncate ; flowers 

 in twos or threes, pedicels filiform, coloured, articulated, shorter than the tube of the perianth; stamens 8, filaments 

 petaloid, subulate, ovary triquetrous, styles 3 divaricating, achenium elliptical, triquetrous with a 3-winged perianth, 

 wings obcordate, opening longitudinally at the sutures. 

 • Professor De Vriese declares that this is undoubtedly 



one of the prettiest species of Polygonum known. It / , S / 



was introduced from Japan by M. Voii Siebold. The 



