POLYGONACEiE. 41 



portion. Panicle lax; tlie fascicles distant, many-flowered, all of them, 

 except those at the apex of the stem and branches, with a stalked leaf 

 or leaflike bract at the base. Longest pedicels scarcely twice as Ion"- 

 as the fruit petals, and often scarcely exceeding them in length ; all of 

 them bent downwards from the articulation. Fruit petals about } inch 

 long, slightly dilated at the base, and with a long nearly parallel-sided 

 point beyond the tubercle, indistinctly reticulated, olive or more or 

 less tinged with dull red ; tubercles very prominent, about half the 

 length of the fruit petal, scarcely twice as long as broad, red or yellowish. 

 Nut dark brown, shining, ovate, trigonous, acuminated, the faces all 

 nearly flat. Plant dull and rather pale green, the stem and veins 

 of the leaves often tinged with red in autumn, when it is sometimes 

 mistaken for R. sanguineus. 



Sharp Dock. 



French, Patience agglomeree. German, Gehiciulter Ampfer. 



SPECIES II.— RUMEX SANGUINEUS. Koch. 

 Plate MCCXI. 



R. nemorosus, " Meyer;'' Fries, Sunam. Veg. Scand. p. 52, Gren. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. 



Vol. III. p. 37. 

 R. Nemolapatlium, Wallr. Sched. Crit. p. 158. 



Leaves thin, the radical ones oblong-lanceolate or oblong, often 

 subpanduriform, rounded or subcordate at the base, subacute, entire 

 or repand or faintly crenate, scarcely undulated at the margins ; 

 lower and middle leaves similar, but smaller, scarcely at all pan- 

 duriform, and with shorter stalks; those at the base of the whorls 

 lanceolate. Branches of the panicle ascending, leafless, or with leaves 

 only at one or two of the basal whorls. Pedicels not much longer than 

 the fruit petals, articulated immediately above the base, spreading 

 half-way round the stem. Flowers perfect. Enlarged petals in fruit 

 narrowly-oblong or oblanceolate-oblong, rounded at the base, sub- 

 obtuse, entire, indistinctly reticulated, each of the two inner ones with 

 a strong midrib, but no tubercle, or only a minute one, the outer petal 

 with a large globular-ovoid tubercle. 



A'^ar. a, viridis. Koch. 



Plate MCCXI. 



R. viridis, Sibthorp, Fl. Oxon. p. 108. 



R. nemorosus, Schracl. in Willd. Enmn. Hart. Berol. p. 397. 



R. Nemolapathum, B.C. Fl. Fr. Vol. III. p. 73. 



Stem and veins of the leaves greenish, or the stem and midrib tinged 

 with red in autumn. 



VOL. VIII. G 



