BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. Polygonaceae. 
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There are many kinds of Rumex, or Dock, coarse herbs, 
with leafy, branching, grooved stems, sheathed with con- 
Spicuous, papery stipules, strong tap-roots and acid or 
bitter juice. The large leaves are alternate, with smooth 
or wavy edges; the flowers small, greenish or reddish, on 
jointed pedicels, in branching clusters; the stamens six; 
the styles three, the stigmas shield-shaped, with a tuft of 
hairs at the tip. The six divisions of the flower are in twe 
sets, the three outer small and green, the inner ones larger, 
eolored and becoming veiny and larger in fruit, forming 
valves or wings, (often with a grain on the back of one or 
all of them,) which closely cover the three-sided fruit. 
These wings make the fruits of Docks more conspicuous 
than the flower. The Latin name comes from a word 
meaning ‘‘to suck,’’ because the Romans sucked the leaves 
to allay thirst. 
settee In favorable situations this is a very 
Rimex vendsus  nandsome member of a rather plain genus, 
Greenish about a foot tall, with a smooth, stout 
Spring, summer reddish stem and smooth, pale, blue-green 
West leaves, that feel like thin rubber, with a 
prominent mid-vein front and back. The small incon- 
spicuous flowers develop into clusters of showy valves or 
wings, wonderfully odd and beautiful in coloring, resem- 
bling Begonia flowers. At first these wings are pale green, 
but they gradually brighten until they are all shades of 
salmon, rose-color, and red, fading to brown, and forming 
lovely combinations of vivid color, particularly against the 
arid background of the sand hills they frequent, and they 
last a long time in water and are exceedingly decorative. 
If these wings, which are nearly an inch across, are pulled 
apart, a three-sided akene, like a little nut, will be found 
inside them. 
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