1908] Fernald,— Rumex salicifolius 19 
spongy grains (2.5 to 3 X 1 to 2 mm.). This plant which abounds 
upon sea-coasts of Nova Scotia and eastern New England becomes 
rather local southward, though it is said to reach the coast of southern 
New York; and it is gratifying to find it beautifully characterized 
by our own New England botanist, Jacob Bigelow, in the second 
edition of the Florula Bostoniensis, as | 
'*]RUMEX PALLIDUS. White Dock. 
R. foliis lineari-lanceolatis, acutis; spicis gracilibus; valvulis ovatis, 
integris, granum vix superantibus. 
Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute; spikes slender; valves ovate, entire, 
hardly larger than the grain. 
Stems numerous, ascending, smooth, round, slightly furrowed. Leaves 
smooth, linear-lanceolate, acute, petioled, more or less waved on the margin. 
Spikes slender, owing to the shortness of the pedicels, the largest with a leaf 
at base. Calyx linear, acute. Petals ovate, obtuse, erect. Stamens six, 
anthers whitish, two lobed. Styles three. Fruit crowded, the valves ovate, 
entire or furnished with a single tooth at base, with a large, white, fleshy, 
obtuse grain nearly covering the back of each.— Salt marshes.— June.— 
Perennial. 
First sent by Dr. Nichols from Danvers." ! 
The other plant of eastern America which has been passing as 
Rumex salicifolius is more upright and generally taller and greener 
than Rumex pallidus, its leaves somewhat broader (1.5 to 3.5 em. 
broad), and its pedicels longer; but its chief distinctions are in the 
form of its panicle and the size, color, and grains of the fruiting calyx. 
The branches of the very dense elongate panicle are strict or very 
strongly ascending, not horizontally spreading as in R. pallidus; the 
valves of the olive-brown or ruddy calyx are 3.5 to 6 mm. long, their 
tips much exceeding the 2 or 3 narrowly ellipsoid to subulate brown 
grains (2 to 2.5 X 0.5 to 1.5 mm.); and the achenes are smaller than 
those of В. pallidus. This plant, with the strict inflorescence, darker 
and longer fruiting calyx and slender grains, replaces R. pallidus on 
the coasts of eastern Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador, and 
extends from sea-level in the East westward to Assiniboia and British 
Columbia, south very locally to central Maine, Michigan and Mis- 
souri; and along the Rocky Mts. at altitudes ranging from 1675 to 
2150 meters (5500 to 9000 feet) to central Mexico and even to Mt. 
! Bigelow, Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 143 (1824). 
