A large family, widely distributed, mostly herbs or low shrubs, with
toothless leaves, often with stipules sheathing the swollen joints of
the stem. The small flowers have no petals, the calyx usually resembles
a corolla and has from three to six divisions. There are from four to
nine stamens and a superior, mostly triangular, ovary, with two or
three styles or stigmas, becoming a dry, one-seeded fruit, generally
brown or black. The kind from which flour is made is cultivated
from northern Asia, and the name Buckwheat, from the German, means
"beech-wheat," because the grain resembles minute beech-nuts. There are
several common "weeds" belonging to this family, such as Dock, Sorrel,
and Smartweed.
Chorizanthes are low herbs, with branching stems, without stipules, the
leaves forming a rosette at the base and withering early. The small
flowers have six sepals and are clustered in small heads, usually one
flower in each papery involucre, which has from two to six teeth,
with bristles at the tips; stamens usually nine, on the base of the
perianth; styles three, with round-top stigmas.
[Sidenote: =Turkish Rugging=
_Chorizánthe fimbriàta_
=Pink
Spring
California=]
An odd, dry-looking plant, making pretty patches of purplish color on
dry mesas. The stiff, roughish, purplish stem is a few inches tall,
springing from a few dull-green or reddish root-leaves, branching
abruptly and widely towards the top and bearing many small flowers. The
involucres are deep-red or purple, with very prickly teeth, the sepals
bright-pink, prettily fringed with white and striped with deeper color,
and the filaments are long and threadlike, with purple anthers. The
flowers are exceedingly pretty when closely examined, though too small
to be very effective, but the plant as a whole is conspicuous both in
color and form. _C. staticoìdes_ is similar, but the sepals are not
fringed.
[Illustration: Turkish Rugging--Chorizanthe fimbriata.]
[Illustration]
There are many kinds of Rumex, or Dock, coarse herbs, with leafy,
branching, grooved stems, sheathed with conspicuous, 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 two sets, the three
outer small and green, the inner ones larger, colored 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.
[Sidenote: =Sand Dock=
_Rùmex venòsus_
=Greenish
Spring, summer
West=]
In favorable situations this is a very handsome member of a rather
plain genus, about a foot tall, with a smooth, stout reddish stem and
smooth, pale, blue-green leaves, that feel like thin rubber, with a
prominent mid-vein front and back. The small inconspicuous flowers
develop into clusters of showy valves or wings, wonderfully odd and
beautiful in coloring, resembling 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Sand Dock--Rumex venosus.]
[Illustration]
There are many kinds of Eriogonum, herbs or shrubs, natives of America,
mostly western, growing in dry places, very numerous and difficult to
distinguish. The leaves, without sheaths or stipules, are often covered
with white down and usually grow in a spreading cluster at the base of
the stem. The numerous small flowers, on very slender little pedicels,
have six sepals, thin in texture and usually colored, and form clusters
of various shapes, which emerge from more or less bell-shaped or
top-shaped involucres, with six teeth. There are nine stamens, with
threadlike filaments, often hairy, and a three-parted style with
round-top stigmas. The name is from the Greek meaning "wooly knees," in
allusion to the wooly joints of the stem.
[Sidenote: =Bottle-plant=
_Eriógonum inflàtum_
=Yellow
Spring
Southwest=]
This is a most extraordinary looking plant, with queer inflated,
hollow stalks, about two feet high, swelling larger towards the top,
and the branches, which are also swollen, sticking out awkwardly in
all directions and bearing a few minute, yellow flowers. The stalks,
which are pale bluish-green, suggest some strange sort of reed, but the
dark-green leaves, growing in a rosette at the base, are something like
the leaves of cultivated violets and seem entirely out of keeping with
the rest of the plant. This grows on the plateau in the Grand Canyon
and in similar places.
[Sidenote: =Swollen-stalk=
_Eriógonum elàtum_
=White, pink
Summer
Northwest=]
This is about a foot and a half tall and the stem is swollen, but not
so much so as the last, and the flowers are more conspicuous, forming
rather flat-topped clusters, about three-quarters of an inch across.
The tiny flowers are cream-white or pinkish, the buds are deep-pink,
and the stamens are long, with tiny, pinkish anthers. The leaves are
dull-green on the upper side and pale with close down on the under and
grow in a cluster at the base.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Swollen-stalk--E. elatum.