40 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



hcconiinf^ much lar!2;Gr and frequently scarions .and coloured in fruit, 1 

 or all of them often furnished with a corky tubercle. Stamens 6, in 

 pairs opposite the exterior leaves of the perianth; anthers innate, 

 firmly fixed to the filaments. Styles 3, filiform; stigmas multified. 

 Fruit a trigonous achene, usually completely enveloped in the enlarged 

 inner perianth leaves. Seed trigonous; albumen copious, mealy; 

 embryo situated at one side of the albumen. 



Annual or perennial herbs, rarely undershrubs, with alternate leaves 

 with ochreate stipules. Flowers in alternate fascicles resembling 

 whorls, and arranged in racemes, which are generally combined into 

 panicles. Fruit pedicels recurved-refiexed, articulated between the 

 base and apex. 



The name of this genus of plants is derived from a Roman name for a sort of spear, 

 the shape of which the leaves of the species are said to resemble. 



SectiOxN I.— LAPATHUM. Tournef. 



Styles free. Leaves attenuated or rounded or cordate at the base, 

 never sagittate or hastate. Flowers all perfect or polygono-monoecious. 



SPECIES I.— R UMEX CONGLOMERATUS. mm-a,j. 



Plate MCCX. 

 R. acutns, lAnn. Herb.! Bm. Engl. Bot. No. 724 (non liinn. Sp. PI. p. 478). 



Leaves thin, the radical ones oblong-lanceolate, rounded or sub- 

 cordate at the base, subacute, entire or repand or faintly crenulate, 

 and slightly undulated at the margins ; lower and middle stem leaves 

 similar, but smaller ; those at the base of the whorls ovate or lanceolate 

 or strapshaped-lanceolate. Branches of the panicle ascending, leafless 

 only at the very apex. Pedicels not much longer than the fruit petals, 

 articulated below the middle, spreading half-way round the stem. 

 Flowers perfect. Enlarged petals in fruit oblong or lanceolate-oblong 

 or subpanduriform, rounded at the base, subobtuse, entire or faintly 

 denticulate at the base, faintly reticulated, each with a large oval- 

 oblong tubercle. 



By the sides of ditches and ponds, and in wet meadows, by roadsides 

 and in waste places. Common, and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Rootstock slender. Stem 18 inches to 4 feet high, slender, furrowed. 

 Hadical leaves 3 to 8 inches long, exclusive of the petiole, which is 

 shorter than the lamina; stem leaves smaller, and broader in pro- 



