210 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



in the rain. An insect visitor touches two stamens 

 and a stigma, and an insect which inserts its head 

 once causes cross-poHination, but if more than once 

 self-polHnation may occur. The chief visitors are 

 flies and bees. 



The fruit, a nut, is dispersed close to the parent 

 plant. 



The names by which this plant is known, as given 

 by Britten and Holland, are Dead Arsemart, Crab- 

 grass, Crab's-claw, Cronesanke, Lakeweed, Lover's 

 Pride, Morub, Peachwort, Persicaria, Red Legs, Red 

 Shank, Redweed, Sauch-weed, Saucy Alice, Virgin 

 Mary's Pinch, Willow- Weed. 



Polygonum Persicaria. — Fig. 60 gives a good 

 idea of the habit. Note the swollen nodes, and stipules 

 or ocrecB, fringed with hairs. The dense terminal and 

 axillary racemes are numerous and ovate. 



Curled Dock [Rumex crispus). 



As the English name implies the leaves have a 

 curly or crisped margin (hence crispus). 



Curled Dock is a native of all parts of the British 

 Isles as far as the Shetlands, ascending in North- 

 umberland to 2000 ft., occurring also in Ireland and 

 the Channel Islands. 



The habitat is waste places, roadsides, ditches, 

 pastures, fields, etc. It also occurs, possibly as a 

 native plant, in the sand-dune formation, in the Sea 

 Couch-Grass association, with Yellow Horned Poppy, 

 Sea Purslane, etc., and in the Star-Grass association. 



