BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonacess. 



BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonacece. 



Herbs with alternate toothless leaves and swollen- 

 jointed stems, usually a stipule or leaflet above each 

 joint, and small, generally perfect flowers (or sometimes 

 dioecious, monoecious, or polygamous ones) without 

 petals, the calyx 2-6 parted. 



The docks are mostly uninteresting 

 Patience Dock 



Rumex northern weeds that cumber fertile ground , 



Patientia and decorate waste places ; many of them 



Green like the patience dock come from the old 



May-June country. This species has smooth broad 

 lance-shaped leaves, broadest just above the base, and 

 the flowers are green, tiny, inconspicuous and drooping, 

 replaced by seed-wings or heart-shaped discs, resembling 

 miniature palm-leaf fans. 2-5 feet high. Vt. , N. Y., 

 and Pa., west to Wis. and Kan. 



Dark green smooth leaves, the lowest 

 Great Water 

 Dock very long, a branching, stout stem, and 



Rumex densely flowering, circling clusters ; the 



Britannica tiny flowers nodding, replaced by seed- 

 Green wings similar to those of the preceding 



July-August gpecies> 3_6 feet high. In wet situations, 

 Me. , Pa. , west to Minn. , Iowa, and Neb. 



A smooth deep green species, similar to 

 Rumex the above > with a grooved stem, and long- 



verticillatus stemmed lance-shaped leaves. Flowers in 

 Green dense circles, the outline of the seed-wing 



May July top-shaped. 2-5 feet high. Swamps. 



Common from Me., south, and west to Iowa. 

 Curled Dock This is the ver ^ common curled leaf 

 Rumex crispus dock throughout the U. S. , a troublesome 

 Green weed from the old country. Leaves wavy 



June-August on tlie mar gi n) flowers replaced by heart- 

 shaped pointed seed-wings 1-4 feet high. 



A species very nearly like R. crispus and 

 Rumex only distinguishable from it by the elon- 



gated (lance-ovoid) grain on the seed wing. 

 This is a widely distributed, more or less common form, 

 and questionably a variety only. 



