1915] — St. John,— Rumex persicarioides and its Allies 75 
marked ‘canade’ (nsis)." Mr. Blake, then, confirms my surmise that 
Kalm’s original collection was probably not made in " Virginia," 
but somewhere on the St. Lawrence system. 
'The earlier floras of our country, as that by Pursh,! credit Rumex 
persicarioides to " shady wet woods, on the banks of ditches; Virginia 
and Carolina": and these records have been continued by the more 
recent Manuals. I have seen no specimen from the Atlantic coast 
from further south than Cape Ann, Massachusetts, nor have I found 
any convincing records of it to the southward. The plant as I know 
it about the Gulf of St. Lawrence grows on the salt marshes and along 
the saline shores, not “in shady wet woods." The improbable habitat 
given by Pursh and the fact that no specimens are known from further 
south than Massachusetts makes the records from “ Virginia and 
Carolina” very questionable. 
Now let us consider the identity of the other annual Rumex of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, a plant widely distributed in America and for 
many years passing as R. maritimus L., but generally treated in 
recent years (following Trelease) as R. persicarioides. 
In the Species Plantarum, Rumex maritimus is defined in very few 
words:? valves toothed, bearing tubercles, leaves linear. Habitat 
on the saline shores of Europe. This description follows directly 
after that of R. persicarioides, yet there is no mention of the leaves 
having wavy margins or truncate bases. Mr. Blake has been kind 
enough to help in interpreting this plant also: “The type of R. mari- 
timus is an erectish plant about 2.5 dm. high with narrowly lance- 
oblong leaves, cuneate at base, rhombic-lanceolate valves with about 
three conspicuous cusp-teeth on each side, longer than the breadth 
of the valves, and lance-oblong grains much narrower than the valves 
which bear a few strong reticulations. It is obviously the R. persi- 
carioides of Gray's Manual ed. 7 p. 357." As shown by numerous 
plates and by authentic specimens this common plant of the saline 
shores and alkaline plains of Eurasia has the leaves plane, narrowly 
linear; and the sharp pointed tubercles lanceolate in outline. 
The American plant, ranging from the Gulf of St. Lawrence south- 
ward along the Atlantic coast to southern New England, and from 
Wisconsin and Illinois westward to British Columbia and Lower 
1 Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 248 (1814). 
?"RUMEX floribus hermaphroditis: valvulis dentatis graniferis, foliis linearibus. 
Habitat in Europae litoribus maritimis." L. Sp. Pl. i. 335 (1753). 
