Descriptive Flora 



71 



Basal leaves few, green above and white underneath, the blades 

 entire, 2 to 3" long, less than 1" wide, and tapering into a long 

 petiole. Stem leaves few, 1 to 2" long, oblong-linear, whitish and 

 silky below. Stems branched above into several horizontal leaf- 

 less stems with f lowers bunched on the erect secondary stems that 

 expand at their tips into the reddish-fringed, goblet-like in- 

 volucres holding many tiny, yellowish flowers. Calyx 5-lobed, 

 silky-woolly, containing oblong anthers and many strap-shaped 

 appendages. On dry hills. Not common. Eriogonum has its 

 origin in the Greek words erion, wool, gonu, knee, from the woolly 

 and jointed stems. 



Rumex altissimus Wood. Pale Dock. Peach-leaved Dock. 



Plant with leafy stems, sheathed with conspicuous papery 

 stipules, and bearing small inconspicuous greenish flowers clus- 

 tered at close intervals on the upper part of the main stems and 

 its ascending branches, the flowers developing 3-sided fruits. 

 Leaves simple, alternate. Blades oblong to lanceolate, 2 — 8" long, 

 ascending, wavy-margined. Stamens 6. Styles 3. Fruit tri- 

 angular, with 3 reticulated green or purplish wings and a white 

 thick ridge on each face of the triangle. Fruits are in clusters 

 along the stalk similar to the flowers and usually conspicuous 

 through their rich coloring. March to fall. In low or waste 

 ground. 



Polygonum lap atM folium L. Smart-weed. 

 (Persicaria lapatJtifolm [L.] S. F. Gray) 



Plants conspicuously sheathed at their swollen joints. Leaves 

 simple, alternate. Blades varying from broadly lanceolate to 

 narrowly lanceolate, long pointed, and thickly dotted with small, 

 sticky glands. Flowers small, pink, in spikes 1 to 3" long, that 

 are often in pairs. Stamens 5. Fruits small, shiny, black 

 achenes, that are concave on both sides. Summer and fall. 

 Grows in mud and low waste ground, often standing in shallow 

 water on margins of lakes and streams. All the specimens I have 

 seen are broad leaved and bushy when growing in shallow water, 



