OCTANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Polygonum. 495 
Curt.—(E. Bot. 989. E Blackw. 119— Fuchs. 843 —J. B. iii. 780 —Pet. 3. 
5— Matth. 583. 
(Plant one to three feet high, erect; remarkable for its slender, long, 
drooping spikes, both lateral and terminal, of distant reddish flowers. 
E.) Leaves spear-shaped, waved, not spotted. Whole plant sprinkled 
with minute glandular dots, but even with the surface, and more obvious 
with a moderate than a higher magnifying lens, probably the seat of its 
very acrid quality. Flowers green, red towards the end. St. {Cal. lour 
or five cleft, variegated with red, white, and green. Styles united nearly 
half way up. E.) 
Water Peeper. Biting Persicaria or Snakeweed. (Welsh: Tin - 
boeih; Llys y din. E.) Watery places, on the sides of rivulets, lakes, 
and ditches. A. July—Sept.* 
P. minus. Flowers with slightly cloven pistils: leaves strap-spear¬ 
shaped, flat: stem creeping at the base : (spikes slender, nearly 
upright. E.) 
Curt.—{E. Bot. 1043. E.)— Lob. Obs. 171. 2—Ger. Em. 446. 3 —Park. 857. 
4— H. Ox. v. 29. row 3. 5. f. 1— Pet. 3. 6. 
Stems several, nine inches to a foot high. Leaves almost veinless, (and not 
undulated. E.) Style sometimes slightly cloven into three. Curt. Leaves 
not acrid. St. Spikes short; flowers few, reddish. Summits two, some¬ 
times three, (they, and not the styles, separated. E. Bot. Rev. Hugh 
Davies, in Anglesey, finds it almost invariably with five stamens ; rarely 
with four; never with six. Nearly allied to P. hydropiper , but much 
smaller. E.) 
Creeping Snakeweed. (Small Creeping Persicaria. Welsh: 
Clymmog bychan; Treigledlys. E.) Persicaria angustifolia , ex singulis 
geniculis Jlorens. R. Syn. 145. P. Persicaria (3 and 6. Linn. Moist and 
watery meadows. Tothill Fields, Westminster. Curtis. Gravel pit on 
Malvern Chase with P. Hydropiper. Stokes. (About Blackheath. E. 
Bot. Wet places at Elstow; and Goldington, Bedfordshire. Abbot. 
Mordem Cars, near Darlington. Mr. Winch. On Costesey Common, near 
Norwich. Smith. Filby Heath, Norfolk. Mr. D. Turner. Woodman- 
sey, near Beverley. Teesdale. Banks of the Foss at York. Rev. Arch¬ 
deacon Pierson, in Bot. Guide. By the border of Llyn Coron, and 
Llangeinwen mill-pool, Anglesey. Welsh Bot. Moist fields near Forfar. 
Mr. G. Don. Hook. Scot. E.) A. Sept. 
P. persicaria. Styles two, united half way up: spikes egg-oblong, 
erect: leaves spear-shaped: stipulae fringed. 
Kniph. 4— FI. Dan. 702— Wale.—-Curt. —(AT. Bot. 756. E.)— Pet. 3. 7— 
Blackw. 118— Dod. 608. 2— Lob. Obs. 171. 1— Ger. Em. 445. 1— Park. 
857. I—Ger. 361. 1— Trag. 90. 
{Stem one to two feet high or more, erect, alternately branched, swelling 
above each joint. Leaves marked with a large dark spot. Spikes green- 
* The whole plant has an acrid, burning taste. It cures little apothous ulcers in the 
mouth. It dyes wool yellow. The ashes of this plant, mixed with soft soap, is a nostrum 
in a few hands, for dissolving the stone in the bladder : but it may be reasonably questioned 
whether it has any advantage over other semi-caustic preparations of vegetable alkali. Its 
acrimony rises in distillation, and the distilled water drank to the amount of two or three 
half pints daily, has been found very effectual in some nephritic cases. Horses, cows, 
goats, sheep, and swine refuse it. 
