ON BUMEX MAXIM US. 7 



bases, any more than that before they fade, all its perianth leaves will 

 become markedly serrate at their bases. I should not deny to it the 

 name of maximus, were a specimen brought me a fair number of whose 

 perianths and some of whose root-leaves agreed with Dr. Trimen's 

 figures of those parts in maxmtcs, even if one or tivo other apparently 

 full-grown root-leaves on the same specimen remained with attenu- 

 'ated bases. It seems as if the same vegetative influences which in- 

 tensify the basal serration of the "flower'' leaves dilated the basal 

 portions of the root-leaves. We know that in the same individual 

 these causes act in the first rase unfqually ; it is hence almost certain 

 that their effects will be unequal oin the same plant in the second in- 

 stance. But when above I mention root-leaves, I speak of genuine root- 

 leaves only, and not of the lower stem-leaves which often pass muster for 

 them in herbaria ; which last arc 'atlier more often than not sub-cor- 

 date even on unmistakable JJ^jdrolapathum. My reasons for suspecting 

 that maximuf^ root-1 paroR start in life without the cordate base are 

 these : this dock exists in very small quantity at Lewes, while 

 Hydrolapathum seems there to be wholly absent, hence it is not un- 

 fair to assume that all the young crowns of first-year and stemless 

 leaves which grow near the few known flowering tufts of maximus are 

 maximus also. Now my specimens gathered this autumn show that in 

 these young crowns there occur from the same root-stock both cordn te- 

 based leaves and attenuate-based ones, the last being the inner and, I 

 believe, the younger. It thus becomes of vital importance when 

 specimens are sent as maximus, that an actual piece of the root-stock 

 should be forwarded attached to the root-leaf. "What many people 

 send as the root-leaves of the water-dock are, as we have already said, 

 only the lower stem-leaves. But root-leaves are not often handy, and 

 it is very tempting to complete the specimen as above, especially as 

 to some minds the distinction seems doubtless trivial. But we must 

 beg them to observe, that a well-grown stem of ordinary Hydrola- 

 pathum has four or five large leaves of this kind, each subtending on 

 alternate sides its branches of inflorescence. The lowest of these 

 leaves separates from the main stem some six inches above the ground, 

 the rest succeed higher up at intervals. Now these are all or most of 

 them more or less subcordate in Hydrolapathum ; but when the real 

 root-leaf is found there is no cordation or even subcordation visible at 

 its base. One last caution. In some very large and broad examples 

 of what are genuine hydrolapathic root-leaves, the leaf-base is con- 

 stricted so suddenly into the petiole, that there seems to arise a kind 

 of phyto-mechanical difiiculty to dispense with a too great abundance 

 of leaf material, so that when the leaf is old and rather shrivelled, there 

 remains some superfluous curled leafy appendage at the point of junc- 

 ture with the petiole ; this, when pressed in the herbarium, corrugates 

 and overlaps the petiole somewhat, simulating a sort of sham base cor- 

 dation, but one which, when warned, the botanical eye can at once 

 distinguish from the genuine y?a^ cordation in maximus. 



