Note 124 — {41} Fifthly, Of Plants.

Polygonum lapathifolium, L. (Hydropiper of Gerard, p. 445),—for which, perhaps, P. hydropiper, L., was mistaken,—and P. Persicaria, L. (Persicaria maculosa of Gerard, l. c.), are what the author means; being the two sorts figured by Gerard himself. The third, added by Johnson, is unknown in this country; and the fourth belongs to a very different genus. P. Persicaria is marked as introduced in the late Mr. Oakes’s catalogue of the plants of Vermont; and both this and P. hydropiper are considered to be naturalized weeds by Dr. Gray (Man., p. 373). Josselyn’s testimony as to the former, as appearing to him to be native in 1671, is therefore not without interest; and possibly it is not quite worthless as to the latter.