386 POLYGONACEAE 



6. R. conglomeratus Murr. Green Dock. Steins slender. 3 to 5 feet high, 

 arising' from a short mostly vertical rootstoek which often crowns one or 

 several fusiform roots; leaves ovate or mostly oblong, slightly iindnlate, 2 

 to 4 inches long, reduced above ; -flowering branches slender, erect, very long 

 (% to 11/2 feet), naked or with a lanceolate or ovate leaf subtending some or all 

 of the remote whorls; pedicels as long as. or rather shorter than the fruit, 

 tumidly jointed near the base and geniculate; fruit about 1 line long, the inner 

 sepals oblong with callous grains mostly 3 and smooth. 



Naturalized from Europe. Low moist valley lands throughout the state 

 and in the mountains to middle altitudes. 



Refs. — RuMEX C0NGL0MER.\TUS Murr. Prodr. Fl. Goptt. 52 (1770), type European; Trel. 

 Eep. Mo. Bot. (uTi-.l. ?,: 90, pi. 28 (1892); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 1.57 (1901). 



7. R. salicifolius "Weinm. Willow Dock. Low spreading or erect, 1 to 

 2\C, feet high ; leaves plane, glaucous, linear-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acute 

 at both ends, IV2 to 5 inches long, short-petioled ; flowering branches short (2 

 or less commonly 4 inches long), the lateral mostly divaricate; whorls dense, 

 crowded, leafless, or 1 or 2 lower whorls remote and leafy; pedicels rather 

 shorter than the fruit, jointed near the base and recurved but not geniculate; 

 inner fruiting sepals triangular or triangular-ovate, pink-red. 1 to 2 lines long, 

 the white callous grain only 1, or the grains 1. 2 or 3, even in the same panicle. 



Wet places in valley lands and in the foothills, ascending to high altitudes 

 in the mountains ; distribu.ted nearly throughout California. North to British 

 Columbia. A variable species. We have specimens from Mt. San Jacinto at 

 6000 feet and from Bullfrog Lake, Sierra Nevada, at 11,000 feet, which are in 

 appearance quite unlike the seaboard type. AVhile one or more of the alpine or 

 interior forms may represent distinct units, the evidence now available to us is 

 insufficient for specific segregation. 



Locs. — Eureka, Tracy 1157; Vaeaville, Jepson; Berkeley, Jepson; Oakland, Davy (grains 

 none); Alvarado, Jepson; Santa Barbara, M. S. Baker; Elsinore, McClatchie 51; Tebipite, 

 Hall 4' C'hanjh r 494; Carson Spur, Alpine Co., Hansen 752. 



Var. montigenitus Jepson n. var. Flowering branches short and panicle 

 more compact ; inner fruiting sepals without callo4i.s grains or a calyx here 

 and there with the grains subulate or small. — (Panicula compactior; calyx 

 fructifer obsolete callifer undique, raro unus passim cum callibus subulatis 

 parvisve.)— High montane (6000 to 11.000 feet); Yollo Bolly ilts. ; Sierra 

 Nevada; south to San Jacinto Mts. Seems conspecifie with plants of the 

 Rocky Mt. region more recently referred by authors to R. mexicanus Meisn., 

 but all the forms of this variety are matched by occasional plants of the im- 

 mediate coast region which we are referring to R. salicifolius. 



Refs. — RuMEx S.4LICIF0LIUS Weinm. in Flora, 4: 28 (1821), type loc. San Francisco, 

 Chamisso (Linnaea, 3: 60); Trel. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 3: 87, pi. 26 (1892); Jepson, Fl. W. 

 Mid. Cal. 157 (1901); Fernald, Rhod. 10: 17 (1908). S. lacustris Greene, Erythea, 3: 63 

 (1895), type loc. Silver Lake, Lassen Co., Baker ^ Nutting. 



8. R. pulcher L. Fiddle Dock. Stem slender but rigid, widely parted 

 into zigzag branches; leaves oblong or fiddle-shaped, 3 to 5^2 inches long, 

 petioled; flowering branches simple, divaricate, sparsel.y leafy, the dense 

 whorls remote or at least distinct, red-brown in fruit ; pedicels about equaling 

 the fruit, tumidly jointed in the middle: inner fruiting sepals with 5 to 10 

 awn-like teeth on each side ; callous grains 1 to 3. 



Common weed of valley waysides and vacant lots in towns ; also in meadows 

 and moist places in the foothills and mountains. Naturalized from Europe. 



Bet's. — RuMEX PULCHER L. Sp. PI. 336 (1753), tvpe European; Trel. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 3: 91, pi. 29 (1892); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 15-"(1901). 



9. R. obtusifolius L. Bitter Dock. Tall, slender, 3 feet high or more; 

 leaves ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, somewhat undulate, acute or obtuse, 



