POLYGONUM avicularc.
Knot-grass.
OCTANDRIA Trigynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. coloured, in 5 segments, permanent.
Seed solitary, superior, angular, invested with the
calyx. Slam, and P ist. uncertain in number.
Spec. Char. Flowers axillary. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate,
rough at the margin. Nerves of the stipules
remote. Stem prostrate, herbaceous.
Syn. Polygonum aviculare. Linn. Sp. P I. 5 1 9 . Sm.
F I. B rit. 4 2 9 . Buds. 1 7 1 . With. 3 8 3 . H ull. 86.
Relh. 157. Sihth. 1 3 0 . Abbot. 8 9 . Curt. Load,
fa s e . 1 .1. 2 7 . M art. Rust. t. 9 1 .
P. mas vulgare. R a il Syn. 1 4 6 , and all the following,
including P . marinum, 147-
A COMMON weed in all kinds of waste or even cultivated
ground, especially in sandy or stony places, flowering all summer
long. Birds feed on the seeds.
Root annual, long, very tough. Stems generally prostrate,
much branched, various in length and luxuriance, tough, leafy,
round, striated, glaucous or purplish, the branches greatly
divaricated. Leaves alternate, elliptical or lanceolate, entire,
obtuse, tapering at the base, smooth except at the margin,
more or less glaucous. Stipulas membranous, acute, often red,
ribbed with a few remote nerves. Flowers axillary, clustered,
on short stalks, small, but elegantly coloured with red, white,
and green. Stamina 8, rarely 10, short and broad. Germen
triangular, crowned with 3 very short styles. Seed black,
polished.
Few plants vary more in luxuriance, breadth of leaves, or
size of flowers. On the Cornish coast it is found very large
and glaucous, when it becomes the P. marinum of Ray, but
not the maritimum of Linnaeus, which is still larger and more
glaucous, with a perennial shrubby stem, and is essentially
distinguished by the numerous parallel nerves of its large sti-
pulae.