BOX 51 



the upper ones more stalklcss, and w idi an acid taste. The stipules ur 

 leaflike organs are torn and silvery. 



The flowers are deciduous, in leafless panicles, drooping, branched. 

 The male flowers exceed the female. The flower-stalks equal the 

 sepals, which are without knob-like points on the midrib. Thev enclose 

 the seeds, which are yellowish-brown. The 3 sepals are ascending. 



Sheep's Sorrel is 18 in. in hciglu. ll llowers in ]Ma\-, |unc, and 

 July. The plant is perennial, re])roduced 1)\' division of the roots. 



Like other Docks with a long stigma it is anemophilous, pollinated 

 by the wind. The early flowers are proterogynous, the kitcr ones 

 homogamous. There are complete; female flowers, or dicecious [)]anls. 

 Sheep's Sorrel is, however, usually ditecious, the male flowers being 

 very small. 



The fruits are winged and wind-dispersed. 



This plant is essentially a sand-loving plant, growing on sand .soil, 

 such as Marlstone, Glacial sands, &c. 



A cluster-cup fungus, Us/i/aj^o Kulincaua. forms a rust on the 

 leaves. 



This Dock is a food plant of several insects, e.g. a beetle, x-lpion 

 huiiiile, several Lepidoptera, b'orrester Moth (yliio s/cif/ccs), Autumnal 

 Rustic (jVoc/iia glareosd). White -spotted Pinion [Gelccliia dijjhiis), 

 G. velocella, A^epticula acetosce. Light - feathered Rustic [.lo-jv/is 

 ciiiered), and two Homoptera, Aphalara exilis, A. caltlur. 



Acetosella, Linnaeus, is from the Latin, accliis, acid, sharp. 



The names in common use are liread-and-cheese. Cuckoo's Meat, 

 Cuckoo's Sorrel, Sour Docken, Lammie .Sourocks, Sour Leek, Ranty 

 Tanty, .Sheep's Sorrel, Sheep's Sourack, -Sooracks, .Soorocks or 

 Souracks. 



EssENTi.vL Specific Cii.\r.\cters: — 



271. Rumex Acetosella, L. — Stems many, leaves sagittate, tapered, 

 plant dicjccious, sepals ascending, little enlarged, ovate. 



Box (liuxus sem])ervirens, L.) 



There is no trace of this rare u])land shrub in any early deposits in 

 Great Britain. It is found from Belgium southward in Europe and in 

 N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, as far east as the W. Himalayas, in the 

 X. Temperate Zone. In (ireat Britain it is fouml onl\- in four 

 counties — Kent, .Surrey, Bucks, Gloucs — and elsewhere it is only 

 naturalized, being perhaps not indigenous in the last. 



The Bo.x in its native state is coniined to hills of chalk, or oolite, 



