RUMEX POLYGONACE 587 
R. _ crispus L. Sp. 335. Glabrous to slightly papillate: stems stout, 2-3 
feet high, simple: leaves Lluish 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. 
++ +» Jnner sepals triangular-ovate to oblong, sometimes with a 
contracted apex. 
R. hesperius Greene Pitt. iv, 234. ‘ Alliedto R. altissimus 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. altissimus, but the species very distinct.”’ 
R. salicifolius Wein. Fl. iv, 28. Glabrous, pale green: stems spread- 
ing to erect, 1-3 feet high simpleor 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 moist soil, Alaska to Calitornia and the Atlantic States and 
Canada: also Europe. 
R.|"conatompratus Murray Prodr. Fl. Geett. 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,jvery 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. putcuer L. Sp. 336. Stems slender, zigzag above, branching at 
nearly every node, at length dichotomous above, mostly glabrous: leaves 
oblong or some ofthe 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, rather leafy: pedicels 
very short, scarcely longer than the fruit, tumidly jointed near the mid-, 
dle: inner sepals rigid, one commonly longer than the others, Labi apse ain 
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. ostusiroris L. 1. c. Glabrous perennial: stems stout, erect, sim-, 
ple or sparingly branched, 2-4 feet high: leaves ample, broadly ovate, 4-14: 
inches long cordate, the veins often red or purplish, the upper ones lanceo- ! 
late or oblong-lanceolate, the margins somewhat undulate or crisped:: 
