1. E. ánnuum, Nutt. Annual, erect, leafy, naked above, 2° high, white-floccose-tomentose throughout; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at both ends, short-petiolate, flat; bracts small, triangular; involucres numerous in terminal cymes, turbinate, shortly pedicelled, 1–1½´´ long, very tomentose; flowers white, the outer sepals oblong obovate, 1´´ long or less.—Central Kan. to Col., and southward.
(Addendum) 2. E. Allèni, Watson. Perennial, white-tomentose throughout, the tall scape-like stem repeatedly dichotomous above; radical leaves lanceolate, long-petiolate, the upper in whorls of 4 or 5, ovate to oblong-ovate, very shortly petiolate, much reduced above; involucres mostly sessile; flowers glabrous, yellow, the segments elliptical.—Near White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. (T. F. Allen).
2. OXÝRIA, Hill. Mountain Sorrel.
Calyx herbaceous, of 4 sepals; the outer smaller and spreading, the inner broader and erect (but unchanged) in fruit. Stamens 6. Stigmas 2, sessile, tufted. Achene lenticular, thin, flat, much larger than the calyx, surrounded by a broad veiny wing. Seed flattened contrary to the wing. Embryo straight, in the centre of the albumen, slender.—Low alpine perennial, with round-kidney-form and long-petioled leaves chiefly from the root, obliquely truncate sheaths, and small greenish flowers clustered in panicled racemes on a slender scape. (Name from ὀξύς, sour, in allusion to the acid leaves.)
1. O. dígyna, Hill. Leaves all round-kidney-form, usually notched at the end; fruit orbicular.—Alpine region of the White Mts., and far north and westward. (Eu.)
3. RÙMEX, L. Dock. Sorrel.
Calyx of 6 sepals; the 3 outer herbaceous, sometimes united at base, spreading in fruit; the 3 inner larger, somewhat colored, enlarged after flowering (in fruit called valves) and convergent over the 3-angled achene, veiny, often bearing a grain-like tubercle on the back. Stamens 6. Styles 3; stigmas tufted. Embryo slightly curved lying along one side of the albumen, slender.—Coarse herbs, with small and homely (mostly green) flowers, which are crowded and commonly whorled in panicled racemes; the petioles somewhat sheathing at base. (The ancient Latin name; of unknown etymology.)
§ 1. LÁPATHUM. (Dock.) Flowers perfect or monœciously polygamous; herbage not sour or scarcely so; none of the leaves halberd-shaped. (Flowering through the summer.)
[*] Perennials, 1–7° high, mostly with fusiform roots; valves not bearing bristles.
[+] Valves (large, 3´´ broad or more, thin) all naked or one with a small grain.