POLYGONACEAE (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 



355 



691. E. venosus. 

 Fruiting calyx x 1, 



692. K. Patientia. 

 Fruiting calyx x 1 . 



1. LAPATHUM [Tourn.] DC. (DOCK.) Flowers perfect or monoeciously 

 polygamous; herbage not sour or scarcely so. (Flowering through the 

 summer.) 



1. R. venbsus Pursh. Stems from running 

 rootstocks, erect (2-6 dm. high or less), with 

 conspicuous dilated stipules ; leaves on short 

 but rather slender petioles, ovate or oblong to 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, only the low- 

 est obtuse at base ; panicle nearly sessile, short, 

 dense in fruit ; valves entire, without grains, 

 cordate with a deep sinus, rose-color. Sask. 

 to centr. Mo., and westw. FIG. 691. 



2. R. PATIENTIA L. (PATIENCE D.) A very 

 tall species, green and glabrous or nearly so, with 

 ovate- oblong and lanceolate 



leaves (broadest above the 

 base), those from the root 



6-9 dm. long and 1-1.5 dm. broad ; pedicels with tumid- 

 joints ; one of the heart-shaped nearly or quite entire valves 

 (6 mm. broad) usually bearing a very small grain, or its 

 midrib merely thickened at base. Rich open soil, Nfd. to 

 N. Y. and Pa. (Nat. from Eurasia.) FIG. 692. Var. KUR- 

 DICUS Boiss. Grain conspicuous, 2-3 mm. long. Mich, to 

 Mo., and westw. (Nat. from Eurasia.) 



3. R. occidentalis Wats. Smooth, stout, erect, usually purple-tinged ; leaves 

 large, flattish ; pedicels obscurely jointed ; valves broadly ovate 

 or orbicular, somewhat obtusely pointed, often denticulate, 

 6-9 mm. broad, all naked or one of them grain-bearing. Rich 

 (often brackish) soil, Lab. to Alaska, s. to e. Me., Minn., N. 

 Dak., Col., and Cal. FIG. 693. 



4. R. Britannica L. (GREAT WATER D.) 

 (1-2 m. high); leaves oblong-lanceolate, rather 

 acute at both ends, transversely veined, and 

 with obscurely erose-crenulate margins (the lowest, including 

 the petiole, 3-6 dm. long, the middle rarely truncate or ob- 

 scurely cordate at base) ; racemes upright in a large com- 

 pound panicle, nearly leafless ; whorls 

 crowded ; pedicels obscurely jointed; valves 

 orbicular or round-ovate, very obtuse, ob- 

 scurely heart-shaped at base, finely reticu- 

 lated, entire or repand-denticulate, all 

 grain-bearing. Wet places, Nfd. to N. J., w. to Ont., Minn., 

 and Kan. FIG. 694. 



5. R. CRISPUS L. (YELLOW D.) Smooth, 0.9-1.6 m. 

 high ; leaves with strongly wavy-curled margins, lanceolate, 

 acute, the lower truncate or scarcely heart-shaped at base ; 

 whorls crowded in prolonged wand-like racemes, leafless 

 above; pedicels with tumid joints; valves round-heart- 

 shaped, obscurely denticulate or entire, 4-6 mm. broad, 

 mostly all grain-bearing ; the grains very plump, subglobose 

 to ellipsoid, with rounded ends. In cultivated and waste 

 ground, very common. (Nat. from Eu.) FIG. 695. 



6. R. ELONG\TUS Guss. Resembling R. crispus, and per- 

 haps a variety of it ; grains lance-ovoid, attenuate. Widely 

 distr., and becoming common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



7. R. pallidus Bigel. (WHITE D.) Depressed or ascend- 

 ing ; root white ; leaves glaucous, narrowly lanceolate, or 

 the lowest oblong ; the lowest branches of the dense panicle 

 spreading at nearly right angles; pedicels much shorter than 

 the whitish-brown fruiting calyx; valves deltoid-ovate, 3-4 



Tall and stout 



')!:?. R. occidentalis. 

 Fruiting calyx x 1. 



K. Hritannica. 

 Fruiting calyx x. 1. 



>us. 



'5. R. cris 

 Leaf x y 3 . 

 Fruiting calyx x ! 2 / 5 . 



