POLYGONACEAE. 



109 



Herbaceous plants. 

 Stigmas tufted. 

 Stigmas capitate. 



Erect or floating herbs. 



Ocreae cylindric, truncate. 

 Ocreae oblique. 

 Twining or trailing vines. 

 Trees or shrubs. 



1. Rum ex. 



2 Persicaria. 



3. Fayopiiruin. 



4. Tinianu. 



5. Coccolobin. 



1. RUMEX L. 



Perennial or annual, leafy-stemmed herbs, some species slightly woody, the 

 leaves In some mainly basal. Stem grooved, mostly branched, erect, spreading 

 or creeping. Leaves flat or crisped, the ocreae brittle and fugacious, the in- 

 florescence of simple or compound, often panicled racemes. Flowers green, 

 perfect, dioecious, or polygamo-monoecious, whorled, on jointed- pedicels. 

 Corolla none. Calyx 6-parted, the 3 outer sepals unchanged in fruit, the 3 

 inner ones mostly developed into wings, one or all three of which usually bear 

 a callosity (tubercle) ; wings entire, dentate, or fringed with bristle-like teeth. 

 Stamens 6, filaments glabrous. Style 3-parted; stigmas peltate, tufted; achene 

 3-angled, the angles usually margined. Embryo borne in one of the faces of 

 the 3-angled seed. [The ancient Latin name.] About 140 species, of wide 

 geographic distribution. Type species: Eumex Patientia L. These plants are 

 commonly called Ehubarb in Bermuda. 



1. R. crispus. 



2. R. pulcher. 



3. R. obtusifoHus. 



Sepal-wings entire or erose. 



Sepal-wings fringed with spine-like teeth. 



Wings ovate or oblong-ovate ; tubercles usually 2. 



Wings hastate ; tubercle 1. 



1. Rumex crispus L. Curled 

 Dock. (Fig. 126.) Perennial, gla- 

 brous, dark green; stem rather slen- 

 der, erect, l°-3° tall. Leaves crisped 

 and wavy-margined,* the low^er oblong 

 or oblong-lanceolate, 6'-l° long, long- 

 petioled, the upper narrowly oblong 

 or lanceolate, short-petioled, all cor- 

 date or obtuse at the base, more or 

 less papillose ; panicle rather open ; 

 racemes simple or compound, by the 

 elongation of the pedicels apparently 

 continuous in fruit ; flowers rather 

 loosely whorled; fruiting pedicels 1^- 

 2 times as long as the calyx-wings, 

 jointed near the base; wings cordate, 

 \Y'-2" long, truncate or notched at 

 base, erose-dentate, 'or nearly entire, 

 each bearing a tubercle; achene 1" 

 long, dark brown. 



Common in fields, meadows and 

 waste grounds. Naturalized from Europe. 

 Widely naturalized in temperate North 

 America. Flowers in spring. 



Rumex sanguineus L., Bloody Dock, recorded as Bermudian by Eeade 

 and by H. B. Small, but not found by subsequent collectors, has a tubercle on 

 only one of the sepal-wings. It is native of Europe and naturalized in the 

 southern United States. 



