92 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



sparingly leafy below ; lower whorls loose and rather re- 

 mote ; pedicels slender, about twice as long as the fruit, 

 tumidly jointed toward the base, valves flexible, not very 

 heavily veined, 2 to 3x4 to 5 mm., ovate-oblong, with 3 to 

 5 thin triangular teeth on each side, mostly confined to the 

 lower half or two-thirds, the triangular entire apex mostly 

 acute ; callosities smooth, ovoid, scarcely reaching the mid- 

 dle of the valve, the largest one about 1 mm. broad, the 

 other two usually very small; achene 1.3x2.2 mm. Sp. 

 i. (1753), 335 ; Meisner, DC. Prod. xiv. 53. Eoadsides, 

 pastures, etc., everywhere in the East; introduced from 

 Europe. Specimens examined from points in Canada, 

 Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, 

 District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, 

 Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illi- 

 nois, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Idaho, Arkansas 

 (Bigelow on Whipple's Exped.), Texas, (Reverchon, 1874), 

 Oregon (Kellogg and Harford, 1869, 869). Plate 30. 



Var. DISCOLOR, Wallroth, with the stem purple and the 

 leaves very red veined, like beet leaves, is only an extreme 

 color form often not distinguishable in herbarium specimens. 

 What is probably that, examined from Nova Scotia 

 (Macoun, 1883), Vancouver Island (Macoun, 1887) and 

 California (Kellogg , 1866). This appears to comprise the 

 greater part of the R. sanguineus of American collectors. 



A hybrid of obtusifolius with crispus occurs quite fre- 

 quently about St. Louis (c/. Meisner, DC. Prod, xiv, 54), 

 intermingled with the parent forms or in the vicinity of 

 one or the other. From the first, it differs in the decided 

 blue green color of the leaves, the somewhat greater undula- 

 tion of their margin, and the narrower outline of all but 

 the lowermost, and in its variable fruiting valves being of 

 unequal size, often broader than long, the lower two-thirds 

 abruptly dilated and with 4 to 5 short acute teeth on each 

 side, often unequally grown together, the three valves 

 bearing prominent callosities. From crispus it differs in the 

 more compound and lax panicle, broader lower leaves, and 



