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Plate 53] POLYGONUM 143<br />
Flowers few in a head, hanging, TV in. long, white or pink.<br />
Bracts crowded, blunt. Flower-stalks short, jointed at the<br />
top. Sepals 4, broad, blunt, very unequal, the inner round or<br />
oblong. Stamens 1-3, perfect. Styles 2-3, nearly free. Nut<br />
3-angled, or biconvex, pale, smooth.<br />
Flowers. July.<br />
Locality. Top of Aporwat on stony ground, about 13,000 .ft.,<br />
common.<br />
Distribution. Alpine Himalaya, 12,000-15,000 ft., from<br />
Kashmir to Sikkim.<br />
Polygonum alatum, Ham.<br />
Winged Polygonum.<br />
(Alatum alludes to the winged leaf-stalk.)<br />
A very variable plant. An erect or procumbent, hairless or<br />
sparsely hairy annual. Stems 1-2 ft. long, rooting at the<br />
nodes ; branches many, ascending. Leaves -J-lJ in. long, eggshaped,<br />
sharp-pointed or blunt, entire, hairless, rarely hairy,<br />
gland-dotted, rough with small points, abruptly or gradually<br />
narrowed into a winged stalk which is sometimes eared at its<br />
base. Stipules membranous, tubular, hairy or glandular<br />
towards the base, not fringed. Flowers white, purple or red,<br />
in heads i-i in. diameter, usually with a stalkless involucral<br />
leaf ;<br />
stalks of heads glandular-hairy near the top. Bracts<br />
flat, membranous, hairless. Perianth 4- or 5-parted, in. long.<br />
Stamens 6 or 8. Styles 2 or 3, united to near the top. Nut<br />
quite enclosed in the perianth, 3-angled, or flattened and<br />
round, finely dotted.<br />
Flowers. June.<br />
Locality. Dara Village, 6,000 ft. ;<br />
Sind Valley.<br />
Distribution. Throughout the Himalaya, from Kashmir to<br />
Sikkim, 4,000-10,000 ft., Khasia Hills, 4,000-6,000 ft., W. and<br />
S. India, Ceylon, Java, China, Japan, Afghanistan, Africa.<br />
Polygonum alpinum, All.<br />
Alpine Polygonum.<br />
Root perennial. Stems hairless or young parts softly hairy,<br />
6 ft. high, grooved, pale reddish or white. Leaves 3-5 in.,<br />
hairless or finely hairy, short-stalked, lance- or linear-lanceshaped,<br />
long-pointed, margins flat, base sharp-pointed. Stipules<br />
long, lax, falling off above the base. Inflorescence 1 ft. long<br />
or more, of myriads of white or pale pink flowers, terminal,<br />
dense. Flower-stalks much longer than the short, blunt<br />
bracts, jointed close below the perianth or lower down.<br />
Perianth ^- in. diameter, cleft nearly to the wedge-shaped
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