1G6 
The following remarks are written in reference to the 
discussion at this Society in November last, as to the 
claims of Polygonum mite, Schrank, to rank as a native 
of Cheshire, and in support of which it was stated that 
“so long ago as 1828, Mr. W. Wilson, of Warrington, sent 
the plant from a Cheshire locality under the erroneous 
name of P. minus to the late Sir W. J. Hooker, in whose 
Herbarium at Kew the specimens still are.” 
Through the kindness of Mr. Baker of Kew I have been 
since furnished with the pei'ianths and fruit of the original 
specimen referred to above, and have compared them care- 
fully with P. minus and mite from various stations both in 
Britain and from the Continent. The comparison quite 
satisfied me that the Kew specimen from Cheshire could not 
be associated with P. mite, but was correctly referred by 
Mr. Wilson to P. minus, Huds. I forwarded specimens to 
Mr. Baker for his opinion, stating my own views as ex- 
pressed above, and received his reply as follows, in a letter 
dated 81st January, 1871 — “I believe now that I have laid 
the nuts side by side and compared them carefully, that you 
are quite right about the Polygonum.” I may further add 
that all the specimens also of more recent collection from 
Lancashire and Cheshire seen by me belong to P. minus, 
Huds. 
Polygonum minus, Huds., has a lax perfectly erect some- 
what interrupted spike of small flowers, with small pitchy 
black smooth shining nuts. Syme (in Eng. Botany) men- 
tions the presence of very minute glands at the base of the 
oclirese and perianths, and I find these in the Cheshire 
specimens. Leaves linear lanceolate, smooth margin, ciliated. 
Stems, in all the specimens I have seen, more or less diffuse 
or ascending, but never erect. Syme describes the stem as 
commonly geniculate and rooting at the base, then erect 
and ascending. Babington describes it as usually procum- 
bent,'' diffuse. 
Polygonum mite, Schrank, is a more robust plant than P. 
minus, and has a lax perfectly erect, somewhat interrupted 
spike of rather large perianths, with dark, slightly rough, 
but shining nuts, twice the size of those of P. minus ; leaves 
