206 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



centre ; and the stipules are fringed at tlie top with fine, stiff hairs. 

 The flowers are rose-coloured, with more or less green, arranged in 

 short axillary or terminal spikes without any leaves ; and the nuts 

 are rather thick, but flattened, smooth, and glossy. 



2. Pale-flowered Persicaria (P. lapathifolium). — ^Very similar to 

 the Spotted Persicaria, and sometimes regarded as a variety of 

 that species ; but it differs in that its leaves are never spotted, 

 and the lower stipules are not fringed with hairs. The peduncle 

 and perianth, which are smooth in P. persicaria, are here rough, 

 being dotted with small, projecting glands ; and the styles, which 

 are united to about half way up in the last species, are quite free 

 in the present one. The flowers are pink, with more or less green, 

 and do not usually bloom after August ; and the plant often attains 

 a length of three or four feet. 



3. Knot-grass or Knot-weed (P. aviculare). — A very common 

 procumbent weed, with wiry stems from one to two or three feet 

 long. The leaves, seldom as much as an inch in length, are 

 narrow, oblong, and flat ; and the stipules are white, membranous, 

 more or less cut at the edges, with a few veins. The flowers are 

 small, very variable in colour, arranged in short-stalked clusters 

 of about three or four in the axils of nearly all the leaves ; and the 

 fruit is a triangular nut, shorter than the segments of the perianth. 

 This plant flowers from July to September. An erect variety, 

 growing to a height of two feet or more, may be seen in cornfields. 



The same order includes the well-known Docks {Rumex), which 

 differ from Persicaria as follows : — The root is very thick, and grows 

 to a great depth ; the stems are erect and furrowed ; and the thin 

 membranous stipules, though never fringed with hairs, often become 

 more or less torn. The flowers are small, green, in axillary clusters 

 or terminal racemes, often tm-ning red as the fruit ripens. The 

 perianth is deeply divided into five segments, three of which become 

 enlarged and close over the triangular nut. Two species of this 

 genus are abundant on waysides. They are : — 



1. The Broad-leaved Dock {Rumex ohtusifolius). — A stout plant, 

 two or tlu-ee feet high, and slightly branched. The lower leaves 

 are ovate, cordate at the base, blunt, often eight or nine inches 

 long ; and the upper ones narrow and pointed. The flowers are 

 perfect, reddish green, in distant whorls, forming a terminal raceme 

 which is leafless above. The inner segment of the perianth is 

 enlarged, ovate, distinctly toothed, with a long point. Time of 

 flowering — July to September. 



