POLYGONACEAE (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 



355 



691. R. venosas. 

 Fruiting calyx x 1. 



692. K. Patientia. 

 Fruiting calyx x 1. 



1. LAPATHUM [Tourn.] DC. (DOCK.) Flowers perfect or monoeciously 

 polygamous; herbage not sour or scarcely so. (Flowering through the 

 summer.) 



1. R. venosus Pursh. Stems from running 

 rootstocks, erect (2-6 dm. high or less), with 

 conspicuous dilated stipules ; leaves on short 

 but rather slender petioles, ovate or oblong to 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, only the low- 

 est obtuse at base ; panicle nearly sessile, short, 

 dense in fruit ; valves entire, without grains, 

 cordate with a deep sinus, rose-color. Sask. 

 to centr. Mo., and westw. FIG. 691. 



2. R. PATIENTIA L. (PATIENCE D.) A very 

 tall species, green and glabrous. or nearly so, with 

 ovate- oblong and lanceolate 



leaves (broadest above the 

 base), those from the root 



6-9 dm. long and 1-1.5 dm. broad ; pedicels with tumid 

 joints ; one of the heart-shaped nearly or quite entire valves 

 (6 mm. broad) usually bearing a very small grain, or its 

 midrib merely thickened at base. Rich open soil, Nfd. to 

 N. Y. and Pa. (Nat. from Eurasia.) FIG. 692. Var. KB- 

 DICUS Boiss. Grain conspicuous, 2-3 mm. long. Mich, to 

 Mo., and westw. (Nat. from Eurasia.) 



3. R. occidentalis Wats. Smooth, stout, erect, usually purple-tinged ; leaves 

 large, flattish; pedicels obscurely jointed ; valves broadly ovate 

 or orbicular, somewhat obtusely pointed, often denticulate, 

 6-9 mm. broad, all naked or one of them grain-bearing. Rich 

 (often brackish) soil, Lab. to Alaska, s. to e. Me., Minn., N. 

 Dak., Col, and Cal. FIG. 693. 



4. R. Britannica L. (GREAT WATER D.) 

 (1-2 m. high); leaves oblong -lanceolate, rather 

 Fruiting calyx x i. acute at both ends, transversely veined, and 

 with obscurely erose-crenulate margins (the lowest, including 

 the petiole, 3-6 dm. long, the middle rarely truncate or ob- 

 scurely cordate at base) ; racemes upright in a large com- 

 pound panicle, nearly leafless ; whorls 

 crowded ; pedicels obscurely jointed ; valves 

 orbicular or round-ovate, very obtuse, ob- 

 scurely heart-shaped at base, finely reticu- 

 lated, entire or" repand-denticulate, all * 

 grain-bearing. Wet places, Nfd. to N. J., w. to Ont., Minn., 

 and Kan. FIG. 694. 



5. R. CRfsrus L. (YELLOW D.) Smooth, 0.9-1.6 m. 

 high ; leaves with strongly wavy-curled margins, lanceolate, 

 acute, the lower truncate or scarcely heart-shaped at base ; 

 whorls crowded in prolonged wand-like racemes, leafless 

 above; pedicels with tumid joints; valves round-heart- 

 shaped, obscurely denticulate or entire, 4-6 mm. broad, 

 mostly all grain-bearing ; the grains very plump, subglobose 

 to ellipsoid, with rounded ends. In cultivated and waste 

 ground, very common. (Nat. from Eu.) FIG. 695. 



6. R.^ELONGATUS Guss. Resembling R. crispus, and per- 

 haps a variety of it ; grains lance-ovoid, attenuate. Widely 

 distr., and becoming common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



7. R. pallidus Bigel. (WHITE D.) Depressed or ascend- 

 ing ; root white ; leaves glaucous, narrowly lanceolate, or 

 the lowest oblong ; the lowest'branches of the dense panicle 

 spreading at nearly right angles ; pedicels much shorter than 



Fruiting calyx x 1V 6 - the whitish-brown fruiting calyx; valves deltoid-ovate, 3-4 



Tall and stout 



693. R. occidentalis. 



R. crispus. 



