234 !• LOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



Dairy Maid's Dock (Rumex obtusifolius, L.) 



Thouo'ii not so distinctly a marsh plant as the Cjoldcn Dock, this 

 species is found in Interglacial beds in Sussex and near London, in 

 Late Glacial beds in tin- Isle of 'Slim, and Neolithic beds in Edin- 

 Inirgh. It is distributed to-day in the North Temperate Zones in 

 Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N.-W. India, and has been 

 introduced recently in North America. This plant occurs in all parts 

 of Great Britain, N.-W. Shetland, up to looo ft. in N. England, Ire- 

 land, and the Channel Islands. 



Dairy Maid's Dock is a very common .species, equally varied in its 

 habitat. For while it is a typical follower of man, and found on all 

 waste ground, it occurs in fields and meadows not only around hay- 

 stacks and barns, &c., but in damp ditches and hollow.s, as well as by 

 the wayside, where it is quite plentiful in shaded spots. It is also 

 a regular component of aquatic formations, growing by streams, rivers, 

 [)onds, and in marshes. 



It is long-rooted, with a tall, erect, branched stem, furrowed, smooth, 

 solid, jointed. The radical leaves are oblong, heart-shaped, egg- 

 shaped, stalked, veined, the upper ones oblong -lance -shaped, those 

 in the middle reddish, the leaf-stalks nearly round, below hollow, liat, 

 slender. 



The flowers are greenish, the parts in threes, with 3 oval, entire 

 petals, membranous at the margin, in a narrow panicle. The caly.x 

 is hollow, with 3 lance-shaped segments, membranous, the sepals net- 

 like, containing the fruit. The fruits are 3-sided and brown, with oval 

 valves. 



This plant is 2-3 ft. high. Dairy Maid's Dock Howers in June 

 up till August. It is perennial, and increases by means of the root. 

 The flowers are anemophilous, or pollinated by the wind, and bi- 

 sexual. They are visited by Halictus cylindriciis. The stigmas are 

 large, tasselled. The stigmas ripen first. There is honey in the 

 flower. 



The fruit or seeds are winged, and when they fall they are carried 

 to a distance by the wind. 



This dock is semi-aquatic, and a peat-loving plant growing on peat 

 soil, or a clay-loving plant when it is found on clay soil in fields and 

 pastures. 



Two microfungi, Uroniyccs 7-umicis and Piiccinia phragDutis, attack 

 the leaves, also a mould, Peronospoi-a ej^usa. It is galled by Diplosis 



