XIV. POLYGONACEÆ.
Trees, with alternate coriaceous stalked leaves, their stipules sheathing the stem. Flowers perfect; calyx 5-lobed; stamens 8; ovary 3-celled; ovule orthotropous. Fruit a nutlet, inclosed in the thickened calyx-tube; seed erect; embryo axillary in ruminate farinaceous albumen; radicle superior, ascending, turned toward the hilum. Of this, the Buckwheat family with thirty widely distributed genera, only Coccolobis is arborescent in North America.