76 Rhodora [APRIL 
California is very like the European R. maritimus and indistinguish- 
able from it in fruit- and flower-characters, but with a very marked 
and almost constant tendency to have the leaves cordate or truncate 
at base and often wavy or undulate along the margins. 
Occasional specimens of the American plant show the development 
of a third bristle on each side of the valve, and this was taken by 
Trelease as one of the characters separating the American “ R. persi- 
carioides” from the Eurasian R. maritimus. This character, however, 
is not constant on any one plant or on the plants from any one region, 
or in conjunction with any other character. For this reason this 
tendency is not worthy of special recognition in the American plant, 
when as a matter of fact, the Linnaean type, as described by Mr. 
Blake, has the valves with “about three conspicuous cusp-teeth on 
each side." 
Since the common North American plant, although indistinguishable 
in fruit from the European R. maritimus, differs from the old-world 
plant in the cordate- or truncate-based and usually undulate leaves, 
it seems worthy of varietal rank under R. maritimus. 
Thinking that it would be very strange if this plant, so common 
over most of North America, did not have a valid name, I have 
searched the literature and find that in 1895 Philippi described a 
Rumex fueginus? He characterized this plant from eastern Fuegia as 
having “leaves all linear, truncate at base," and in the other characters 
his description is quite applicable to our North American plant, 
except that only one valve bears a tubercle. 
Five years later Dusén ? reduced Philippi's species to a variety of 
R. maritimus L., commenting that, *although my specimens differ 
from Philippi's description in so far that all the sepals bear callosities, 
I have no hesitation in putting Rumez fueginus here, as the agreement 
is otherwise complete." 
In his revision of Rumex Trelease^ reduces to synonymy under 
* R. persicarioides L.," which, as I have shown, should now be treated 
1 Trelease, 3d Ann. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 94 (1892). 
2 “foliis omnibus petiolatis, linearibus, basi truncatis,... .valvulae...., unica 
callifera." Philippi, Anales Univ. Chile, xci. 493 (1895). 
3 “Rumex maritimus L. var. fuegina [us] (Phil.) — Obschon mein Exemplar insofern 
von PnururPPr's Beschreibung des Rumer fueginus abweicht, dass sümmtliche innere 
Perianthblütter Schwielen tragen, so hege ich kein Bedenken, da die Übereinstimmung 
sonst vollständig ist, dieselbe zu dem Rumer fueginus Put. zu ziehen." P. Dusén, 
Svenska Expd. till Magellanslünderna, iii. No. 5, 194 (1900). 
1 Trelease, l. c. 
