RUMEX POLYGONACE^E 587 



K. CRISPUS L. Sp. 335. Glabrous to slightly papillate: stems stout, 2-3 

 feet high, simple : leaves bluish green, the lowest ample, elliptical to mostly 

 oblong lanceolate, rounded or decurrently acutish at base, often a foot 

 long : branches of the panicle rather strict, somewhat leafy : pedicels about 

 one-half longer than the fruit, tumidly jointed near the base : inner sep- 

 als 2-3 lines long, rounded ovate, barely cordate, rounded at the apex or 

 with a broad blunt acumination, minutely erose to broadly dentate below, 

 each with a smooth ovoid often rosy callosity reaching to the middle of 

 the valve: achene 1-2 lines long. Common throughout temperate North 

 America and Europe. 



** -M- Inner sepals triangular-ovate to oblong, sometimes with a 

 contracted apex. 



R. hesperius Greene Pitt, iv, 234. " Allied to A', altiissimus but low 

 and slender, very leafy, the panicle small, small-fruited: leaves elliptic- 

 lanceolate, very acute or acuminate, wavy-margined or even almost crisp- 

 ed: pedicels jointed at the very base: valves of the fruiting calyx from 

 quite exactly and sharply deltoid to subreniform-deltoid, as broad at base 

 as long, none grain-bearing, all distinctly though not strongly venulose, 

 seldom obviously reticulate. 



Bottom lands near Bingen Washington, 31 Oct. 1893, W. N. Suksdorf; 

 the specimens distributed for R. altissirnus, but the species very distinct." 



R. salicifolius Wein. Fl. iv, 28. Glabrous, pale green : stems spread- 

 ing to erect, 1-3 feet high dmpleor branched, flexuous : from thick perenni- 

 al roots, leaves lanceolate to linear, or the lower oblong, acute or acuminate 

 at both ends, or rarely obtuse at the apex, often falcate, 2-7 inches long: 

 panicles simple: pedicels arcuately curved, scarcely as long as the fruit, or 

 a few in each cluster longer, jointed near the base : inner sepals triangular- 

 ovate, acute, 2-3 lines long, delicately veined: callosities variable in num- 

 ber smooth or pitted, often nearly as long as the valve: achenes 1-2 lines 

 long. In rich moiet soil, Alaska to California and the Atlantic States and 

 Canada : also Europe. 



R. [CONGLOMERATES Murray Prodr. Fl. Go3tt. 52. Glabrous perennial : 

 stems slender, mostly clustered, 1-3 feet high: leaves ovate to oblong or 

 lanceolate, 1-5 inches long, some of them somewhat fiddle-shaped, crenu- 

 late and slightly crisped: flowering branches slender, at length elongated, 

 not zigzag, bearing a broadly lanceolate leaf at nearly every node : pedicels 

 slender, about as long as the fruit, tumidly jointed near the base: inner 

 sepals about 3 lines long, nearly oblong, obtuse: callosities mostly 3, round 

 to ovoid, very prominent, smooth, half as broad and nearly as long as the 

 valves: achenes about a line long. In waste places, western Washington 

 to California : also in the Atlantic States : adventive from Europe. 



* * Valves very prominently toothed. 



R. PULCHER L. Sp. 336. Stems slender, zigzag above, branching at 

 nearly every node, at length dichotomous above, mostly glabrous: leaves 

 oblong or some of the lower ones fiddle shaped, 1-6 inches long, obtuse, 

 cordate at base, upper ones oblong or oblong-lanceolate, usually narrowed 

 at both ends : panicle loose : racemes long, divergent, ra'her leafy : pedicels 

 very short, scarcely longer than the trait, tumidly jointed near the mid- t 

 die : inner sepals rigid, one commonly longer than the others, prominently^ 

 veined, nearly 3 lines long, ovate, obtuse, with 5-10 short teeth on each/- 

 side, one or all of them with a wrinkled callosity half as long as the valve : 

 achenes about a line long. In waste places : naturalized from Europe. 



R. OBTOSIFOMUS L. 1. c. Glabrous perennial stems stout, erect, sim-. 



Ele or sparingly branched, 2-4 feet high : leaves ample, broadly ovate, 4-14] 

 iches long cordate, the veins often red or purplish, the upper ones lanceo-j 

 late or oblong-lanceolate, the margins somewhat undulate or crisped : 



