t 1044 ]
POLYGONUM Fagopyrum.
Buck-wheat.
O C T A N D R IA Trigynia.
Gew. Char. Cal. coloured, in 5 fegments, permanent.
Seed folitary, fuperior, angular, invefted
with the calyx. Siam, and Piß. uncertain in
number.
Spec. Char. Leaves heart-arrowthaped. Stem nearly
upright, without prickles. Angles of the feeds
even.
Syn. Polygonum Fagopyrum. Linn. Sp. PI. 52a.
Sm. FI. Brit. 430. Hudf. 172. With. 384.
Hull. 86. Sibth. 130. Abbot, go. Mart. Ruß. t. 46.
Fegopyrum. Rail Syn. 144.
B u c k -w h e a t , or Brank, is univerfally allowed to be
of exotic origin, though now naturalized on dunghills, or about
cultivated land, in England and other parts of Europe. It
moft probably came from Afia, where there are many other
fpecies of Polygonum more nearly akin to this than the generality
of our own. It is annual, flowering in July and Auguft.
The feeds afford a meal, neither unwholefome nor unpalatable,
and are excellent food for poultry. In Norfolk it is much
cultivated for the fake of pheafants.
The root is fibrous. Herb fucculent. Stem a foot high
or more, upright, branched, rather crooked or zigzag, round,
leafy, fmooth, except a downy line more or lefs confpicuous
along one fide. Leaves between heart- and arrow-fhaped,
acute, entire, fmooth; the uppermoft feffile. Stipulas fmall
and beardlefs. Flowers in panicled clufters, variegated with red
and white, not inelegant. Five of the eight ftamina bear an-
therae whofe lobes are feparated by a Ihort bar. All the filaments
have-yellow glands between them. The 3 ftyles are
divided to the very bafe. The 3 angles of the feed are ftraight
and even, neither lobed nor undulated as in fome foreign
fpecies.