70 KEY AND FLORA 
I. RUMEX L. 
Coarse herbs, many of them troublesome weeds. Flowers 
small, usually green or greenish, generally in whorls borne in 
panicled racemes. Calyx of 6 nearly distinct sepals, the 3 
inner ones larger and more petal-like than the 3 outer, and one 
or more of them usually with a httle knob or tubercle on its 
back. Stamens 6; styles 3; stigmas short, fringed. Fruit a 
38-angled akene, closely covered by the 3 inner calyx lobes, 
enlarged and known as valves. 
1. R. crispus L. YeLtrow Dock. Stout, smooth, 3-4 ft. high. 
Leaves lanceolate, margins very wavy, acute, the lower more or 
less heart-shaped. Root long, tapering gradually downward, yellow, 
very tough. Flowers in whorls crowded in long, straight, slender 
racemes. Valves roundish-heart-shaped, mostly tubercled. A very 
hardy weed, naturalized from Europe. 
2. R. verticillatus L. Swamp Dock. Perennial. Stem stout, smooth, 
erect or ascending, 3~5 ft. tall. Lower leaves oblong, obtuse at the 
apex and usually heart-shaped at the base, long-petioled, often 12-18 
in. long; upper leaves narrower and often acute at both ends. Flowers 
bisexual or somewhat moneecious, in dense whorls; pedicels slender, 
4-3 in. long, tapering downward, reflexed at maturity. Calyx green, 
the valves broadly triangular, abruptly pointed, reticulated, a distinct 
long and narrow tubercle on the back of each. Swamps and wet 
ground.* 
3. R. Acetosella L. Surer Sorret. Perennial herbs with slender 
creeping and bud-bearing roots. Stem simple or branched, smooth. 
Leaves petioled, narrowly halberd-shaped, usually widest above the 
middle, the apex acute or obtuse; upper stem leaves often nearly 
linear and not lobed. Flowers dicecious, small, in terminal, naked, 
panicled, interrupted racemes. Calyx greenish ; the pistillate pani- 
cles becoming reddish. Fruit less than 4; in. long, granular, longer 
than the calyx. A common weed, naturalized from Europe, in dry 
fields and on sour soils. Foliage very acid.* 
Il. POLYGONUM L. 
Annual or perennial, terrestrial or aquatic herbs, with en- 
larged joints and simple, alternate, entire leaves; the sheath- 
ing stipules often cut or fringed. Flowers bisexual, usually 
white or rose-colored, each flower or cluster subtended by a 
membranaceous bract similar to the stipules of the leaves. 
