110 POLYGON ACEAE. 



volucres in a simple or compound umbel ; bracts resembling the leaves, 

 the uppermost reduced; involucres with 8 reflexed lobes; perianth 

 sulphur yellow or tinged with red; glabrous, tapering to a stipe-like 

 base. 



Common in the coniferous forests. A handsome species that 

 should be introduced into gardens. 



8. RUMEX L. Dock. 



Perennial or annual leafy-stemmed herbs. Stem 

 grooved, usually branched. Leaves entire or undulate, 

 flat or crisped, with scarlous obliquely truncate cylindric 

 sheathing stipules. Flowers green, usually perfect, in a 

 simple or compound often panicled raceme. Calyx 6- 

 parted, the 3 outer sepals unchanged in fruit, the 3 inner 

 ones (wings) usually bearing a grain-like callosity on 

 the back, larger and enclosing the achene. Stamens 

 6; filaments short, glabrous; anthers oblong. Style 

 3-parted; stigmas peltate, tufted. Achenes 3-angled. 



Flowers dioecious; leaves hastate. 1. R. acetosella. 



Flowers perfect; leaves not hastate. 



Inner calyx lobes with slender awned teeth. 

 Perennial; flowering branches diver- 

 gent. 2. R. pulcher. 

 Annual, prostrate or erect, pubescent, 



branches not divergent. 3. R. persicarioides. 



Inner calyx lobes entire or merely dentate. 

 Calyx lobes with callous grains, 3-4 

 mm. wide. 

 Stems decumbent; leaves plane. 4. R. salicifolius. 



Stems erect; leaves more or less 

 undulate. 

 Flower whorls remote, usually 



subtended by small leaves. 5. R. conglomeratus. 

 Flower whorls approximate, 

 forming a rather dense com- 

 pound raceme. 6. R. crispus. 

 Calyx lobes without grains, 8-12 mm. 



wide. 7. R. hymenosepalus. 



1. R. acetosella L. Perennial by slender running rootstocks, 

 slender, erect or nearly so, simple or branched, 2-4 dm, high, gla- 

 brous; leaves narrowly hastate, petioled, the uppermost leaves some- 

 what entire; panicle narrow, naked, becoming reddish; calyx green, 

 1 mm. long; stamens exserted; achene granular, exceeding the per- 

 sistent calyx. 



In moist grassy places about Los Angeles. Native of Europe. 



2. R. pulcher L. Stems erect, 5-8 dm. high, with rigid divari- 

 cately spreading branches; leaves scabrous beneath, the basal oblong 



