APETAL^ 211 



as well as in the shingle-beach community, occurring 

 besides as a strand plant. 



Having a rosette of radical leaves and an erect 

 stem the plant is of the rosette habit. There are 

 few branches, which are short and do not spread. 

 The radical leaves are long, narrow, blunt below, 

 wavy or crisped at the border (hence crispus). The 

 upper leaves are not so large, and are narrower, 

 mere bracts in the spike and blunt below. 



The flowers are numerous, in whorls, and in front 

 crowded in a long spike or panicle, the branches 

 erect, the whorls close. The ultimate flower-stalks 

 are longer than the perianth. The inner segments 

 are broadly ovate, the enlarged fruiting segments are 

 heart-shaped, blunt, entire, or scalloped, with one 

 as a rule tubercled, the ultimate flower-stalks longer 

 than the perianth. The inner segments are ovate, 

 with an ovoid or oblong coloured tubercle, small 

 and smooth. The fruiting segments are net-veined. 

 The nut is elliptic. 



The Curled Dock is 2 to 4 ft. high, flowering from 

 June to August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



The flowers are wind-pollinated as in other Docks. 

 The anthers ripen first. The flowers are herm- 

 aphrodite, or there may be male flowers and female, 

 which last are small. 



The fruit is a nut which may be dispersed by the 

 wind. 



There are no names for this plant except Curled 

 Dock and Common Dock. 



