Rbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 17. April, 1915. No. 196. 
RUMEX PERSICARIOIDES AND ITS ALLIES IN NORTH 
AMERICA. 
Hanorp Sr. JOHN. 
(Plate 113.) 
SEVERAL collections of the annual Rumex persicarioides and a nearly 
related species from about the Gulf of St. Lawrence have led to a 
study of these species and their allies. Through the courtesy of the 
curators I have been able to study the collections of this group in the 
herbaria of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Yale 
University, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. I wish here to 
express my gratitude to these gentlemen, Mr. Stewardson Brown, 
Mr. A. F. Hill, and Dr. J. M. Greenman. 
Along the borders of salt marshes and brackish ponds on Prince 
Edward Island grows a fleshy annual Rumex remarkable for the large 
straw-colored tubercles borne on the valves and for the plane, linear, 
cordate-based leaves. "This plant tallies perfectly with Linnaeus's 
description in the Species Plantarum of Rumex persicarioides.! It is 
characterized, in contrast with A. maritimus which follows it directly 
in this work, by having large, pale tubercles borne on each valve, 
“valvulae...., omnes tectae granis pallidis magnis." “Habitat in 
Virginia." These large pale tubercles are the most conspicuous 
character of this plant of Prince Edward Island, other parts of the 
lower St. Lawrence system, and Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 
In order to make this identification doubly sure, Mr. Sidney F. 
Blake has been kind enough to examine the type for me, and to send 
1 L. Sp. Pl. i. 335 (1753). 
