122 COMMON CANADIAN WILD PLANTS. 



3. R. verticilla'tus, L. (SWAMP DOCK.) Leaves lanceolate 

 or oblong-lanceolate, not wavy, the lowest often heart-shaped. 

 Stem tall. Fruit-bearing pedicels slender, club-shaped, abruptly 

 reflexed, several times longer than the fruiting calyx. Valves 

 dilated-rhomboid, strongly wrinkled, each bearing a very large 

 grain. Swamps, common. 



4. R. crispus, L. (CURLED DOCK.) Leaves with strongly 

 w&vy or curly margins, lanceolate. Whorls of flowers in long 

 wand-like racemes. Valves grain-bearing. Cultivated soil and 

 Waste places. 



5. R. obtusifo'lius, L. (BITTER, DOCK. ) Lowest leaves oblong 

 heart-shaped, obtuse, only slightly wavy-margined; the upper 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute. Whorls loose, distant. Valves some- 

 what halberd-shaped, sharply toothed at the base, usually one only 

 grain-bearing. Waste grounds. 



* Herbage sour ; leaves halberd-shaped. 



6. R. Acetosel'la, L (FIELD or SHEEP SORREL.) Stem 6-12 

 inches high. Flowers dioecious, in a terminal naked panicle. A 

 very common weed in poor soil. 



3. FAGOPY'RUM, Tourn. BUCKWHEAT. 



F. esculen'tum, Moench. (BUCKWHEAT.) Old fields and 

 copses, remaining aftec cultivation. 



ORDER LXXV. LAURA'CE^S. (LAUREL FAMILY. ) 



Trees or shrubs with spicy-aromatic bark and leaves, the 

 latter simple (often lobed), alternate, and marked with small 

 transparent dots (visible under a lens). Sepals 6, petal-like. 

 Flowers dioecious or polygamo-dioscious. Stamens in sterile 

 flowers 9, inserted at the base of the calyx. Anthers opening by 

 uplifting valves. Ovary in fertile flowers free from the calyx, 

 1 -celled, with a single ovule hanging from the top of the cell. 

 Style and stigma 1. Fruit a 1 -seeded drupe. 



1. SAS'SAFRAS, Nees. SASSAFRAS. 



S. officina'le, Nees. A small or moderate-sized tree with 

 yellowish or greenish-yellow twigs and ovate or 3-lobed entire 

 leaves. Flowers greenish-yellow, in naked corymbs, appearing 



