380 HEXANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. rumb^. 



Eoot large, branched, brown externally, yellow within. Stem 

 2 — 4 feet high, branched, angular and sulcate. Leaves very 

 large ; the radical ones nearly a foot long, and 6 — 7 inches 

 broad, slightly waved on the margin, obtune ; veins often red 

 beneath. Racemes long, nearly leafless. Valves large, ovate- 

 cordate, reticulate, acutely dentate; one of them bearing a 

 large grain. 



Hab. In shady woods and in fields. In the former situation it 

 grows much larger. June — July. Introduced. 



* * Flowers dioe,cious ; valves grainless. Aoetosa. 



8. R. Acetosella L. ; leaves lanceolate-hastate, with the 

 lobes spreading or recurved. W il I d. Spec. II. p. 260, 

 Smith Fl. Brit. I. p. 396. Eng. Bot. U 1 574. M i c h. 

 JT/. I. p. 216. Pwrs A F/.l. p. 249. B i g. Bost, p. 87. 

 Elliott Sk. I. p. 405. 



Raot creeping. Stem 4 — 12 inches high, slender, somewhat an- 

 gular and furrowed. Leaves generally all hastate, though 

 sometimes the radical ones only are so ; petioles long ; sheaths 

 lacerate. Racemes paniculate ; nvhorls 6 — 8-flowered. Starrd- 

 ■jiiferous flowers with scarcely more than the rudiment of a 

 germen ; fierianth petaloid. Valves in the fiistilliferous flowers 

 ovate, entire, reticulate. 



Hab. In fields and cultivated grounds ; very commonJ May — = 

 July. Introduced. Shee/is' Sorrel, 



A pernicious weed, well known for its pleasant acid taste. 

 I have very rarely found the pistilliferous flowers. 



ORDER III. 

 T E T R A G Y N I A. 



262j SAURURUS. L. 



Flowers in an ament or crowded spike; scales 

 1-flowered. Corolla 0. Anthers adnate to the fila- 

 ments. Capsules each 1 or rarel}- 2-seeded. Geru 

 pi. 632. Nutt. Gen, I. p. 240. Juss. p. 19. 

 Lam. III. t. 276. Mattuschkea Gmel. Syst. 

 Nat. I. p. 589. Anonymos JFalt. Car. p.. 127. 

 Nat. Ord. Naiades Juss.^ Lizards'- taiL 



t Jussieu does not appear to be satisfied with the place he has as= 

 signed to this plant in his System. He asks whether it is not more nearly 

 allied to the AnoiDEaj, or to Piper. We think certainly to the latter. 



