Rumex POLYGOXACE.E 107 



generally small, solitary or generally clustered within a bract. 

 Pedicels jointed. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, regular. 

 Perianth inferior, green or coloured, lobes or segments 4-6, in 

 2 whorls or spiral, imbricate, after flowering unchanged, or the 

 whole or one whorl attached to, and growing with, the fruit. 

 Stamens 6-9 ; filaments free or connate at the base. Ovary 

 superior, 1 -celled. Styles 2 or 3 with expanded stigmas. 

 Ovule single, orthotropous. Fruit a nut, 3-angled or bi- 

 convex, enclosed by the perianth. Seed erect ; endosperm filling 

 the seed, sometimes ruminate. Embryo more or less excentric ; 

 cotyledons somewhat flat. 



Herbs, 



Perianth-segments G in two series 1. Rumex. 



Perianth-segments 5 2. Polygonum. 



Trees or shrubs. Perianth-segments 5. 



OchreEe large 3. Coccoloba. 



[Ochreee obsolete. Inflorescence with tendrils Antigonon.'] 



1. RUMEX L. 



Perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, sometimes radical. Flowers 

 in clusters which are paniculate in W. Indian species, hermaphro- 

 dite or unisexual by abortion, sometimes dioecious. Perianth-seg- 

 ments 6 in two series, the outer unchanged after flowering, the 

 inner " valves " attached to, and growing with, the nut, or 

 remaining unchanged. Stamens 6. Ovary 3-angled ; styles 3, 

 expanded into variously cut stigmas. Nut with prominent angles. 

 Embryo lateral, cotyledons linear or oblong. 



Species about 140, very widely dispersed through the 

 temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, fewer in the 

 tropics and the southern hemisphere. 



Leaves entire. Flowers hermaphrodite. 



Valves entire 1. R. crisjms. 



Valves with long subulate teeth 2. R. obtusifolius. 



Lower leaves hastate. Flowers dioecious 3. R. Acetosclla. 



1. R. crispus L. Sp. PL 335 (1753); leaves elongate oblong, 

 margin of the larger leaves undulate-crispate, attenuated both at 

 base and apex ; whorls of flowers numerous, crowded in fruit in a 

 long narrow panicle, leafy l^elow ; flowers hermaphrodite ; valves 

 broadly ovate, subcordate, obtuse, with raised reticulation, 

 entire, sometimes obsoletely denticulate at the base, the median 

 nerve swollen into an oval callus. Meisn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 44 ; 

 Lindan in Urh. Symb. Ant. i 210, iv. 211. 



Port Royal, McNab ! near Gordon Town, Ball ! Hardware Gap, 

 4000 ft., Harris ! Fl. Jam. 10,113. Bermuda, Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto 

 Rico, Guadeloupe. Widely distributed in the north temperate regions of 

 the Old World, perhaps an introduction in the New World. 



Stem 1-S it. Leaves 1' 5-2' 5 dm. \. Valves d-5 mm. \. 



