BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonaceas. 



Bitter Dock Another weed from the old country, 



Rumex obtusi- common in fields and waste places. A 

 folius loose and thinly flowered spike ; the stem 



Green rough and stout and the somewhat wavy 



une- ugus i eaves OD long and wider than those of 

 the other species. The seed- wings with a few spines on 

 either side. 2-4 feet high. Me., south, and west to 

 Ore. 



Golden Dock ^ sea-shore species, an annual ; with 

 Rumex persi- light green, narrow, lance-shaped leaves, 

 carioides the plant more or less woolly, and greatly 



Green branched, the circles of the flowers 



uly- c o er crowc [ed together into a compact spike, 

 the seed-wings narrow and pointed, golden yellow in 

 autumn, bearing 2-3 long spines on either side. In the 

 sand along the shores. Me., south to Va., and from 

 Kan. and Minn., west and north. It has been confused 

 with R. maritimus of the old country. 



A most troublesome small weed from 

 Field or Sheep the old wor \^ w i tn long-arrowhead- 



r x -iceto- s h a P e d leaves, acid to the taste, and in- 



se lla conspicuous flowers in branching spikes, 



Green, Brown- green, or later brown-red; the whole plant 



red sometimes turning ruddy in dry, sterile 



f u " e " . fields. It will generally flourish in one 



September & J 



place for two or three years and then die 



out. The flowers are dioecious, that is, the staininate 

 and pistillate ones are found upon separate plants, and 

 are therefore fertilized by insects ; bumblebees, honey- 

 bees, and the smaller butterflies are the commonest 

 visitors. 6-12 inches high. Growing everywhere. 



The genus Polygonum, the name from xokvS, many, 

 and yovv, knee, alluding to the many joints of the 

 plants, comprises about twenty-five distinct species, all 

 of which may be characterized by the term weed ! They 

 are aesthetically uninteresting and many are extremely 

 troublesome in the farmer's vegetable garden. They 

 mostly bear pink perfect flowers grouped in a slender 

 grasslike spike. 



104 



