2 (9 /7 . 2811
POLYGONUM dumetorum.
Climbing Thicket Buckwheat.
OCT A N D B lA Trigynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. of 5 persistent segments. Cor. none.
Stam. 5—8. Styles 2—3. Fruit, a one-seeded
compressed or trigonous nut, with a lateral embryo,
and the cotyledons linear-oblong.
Spec. Char. Stem twining, striated ; ochrese short,
rather acute; leaves triangular, cordate.; racemes
axillary, elongated ; pedicles long; fruit triquetrous,
very smooth and shining, covered by the
persistent broadly-winged perianth.
Syn. Convolvulus niger. Dodon. Pempt. 396. f . 1.
(good).
P. dumetorum. Linn. Sp. PI. 522. Flora Dan.
756. mild . Sp. PI. 2. 455. Dot. Gall. 1. 408.
Gaud. FI. Helv. 3. 48. Meisn. Mon. Polyg.
Prod. 63. Reich. FI. Germ, excurs. 574. Bab.
in Linn. Trans. 17. 459.
Fagopyrum membranaceum. Gray. Nat. Arr. 2.
272?
T h i s plant has probably been passed over by most English
botanists as a rampant variety of the common P. Convolvulus,
but although specimens of the latter do sometimes
occur in which the calyx is more or less winged, and the
whole plant approaches P. dumetorum in size, yet there can
never be any difficulty in distinguishing them, if due attention
be paid to the fruit. In P. Convolvulus the fruit is
rough, with minute elevated points and not shining, it is also
much broader in proportion to its length and the faces are
far less concave. (See the figures on the left hand.)
Our plant is annual, flowering in September. It has a
stem 5 or 6 feet high, twining round the bushes and ram