46 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES VI.— R UMEX OBTUSIPOLIUS. '* Llnnr Auct. Plur. 



Plate MCCXV. 



R. Fi-iesii, Gren. & Gr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. in. p. 3G. 



R. divarcatus, Fries, Mant. iii. p. 25, and Summ. Veg. Scand. pp. 51 and 202 

 (non Linn.). 



Leaves thin, the radical ones very broadly oblong or ovate-oblong, 

 not panduriforin, cordate at the base, subacute or subobtuse, crenate- 

 repand and slightly undulated at the margins; lower stem leaves 

 similar, but narrower, and on shorter stalks; leaves at the base of 

 the whorls elliptical or lanceolate-elliptical, stalked. Branches of the 

 panicle ascending or erect-ascending, leafless, except at the very base. 

 Pedicels once and a half or twice as long as the fruit petals, articulated 

 a little below the middle, spreading nearly all round the stem. Flowers 

 perfect. Enlarged petals in fruit triangular, truncate at the base, obtuse, 

 cut into several rather long triangular setaceous-pointed teeth in the 

 basal half, strongly reticulate ; the two lower ones rather smaller than 

 the upper one, with a slender linear-lanceolate tubercle; the upper 

 petal with a large short ovate-ovoid tubercle ; tubercles not muricated. 



By roadsides and on waste ground, cultivated fields and pastures. 

 Very common, and universally distributed. 



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



Rootstock thick, blackish, the apex clothed with filaments formed of 

 the decayed petioles of previous years. Eadical leaves sometimes very 

 large ; the lamina sometimes 6 inches to 1 foot- long, the breadth half 

 to one-third of the length. ' Flowering stem 18 inches to 8 feet high 

 or more, branched ; the branches making but a small angle with the 

 stem, so that the panicle is long, narrow, and compact ; whorls generally 

 approximate, many-flowered, most of them leafless. Pedicels slender, 

 recurved from below the articulation, not above it, as in R. pulcher. 

 Fruit petals 3^ to |- inch long, olive, generally tinged with red, each 

 margin with 3 (rarely 2 or 4) long spreading teeth, the longest of which 

 is about as long as the width of the petal ; apex of the petal entire, and 

 less strongly veined than the base; tubercles generally red; those on the 

 two lower petals slender, and frequently little more than a thickening 

 of the midrib towards the base. Nut about -J- inch long, very broadly 

 ovate, triquetrous, light yellowish-brown, smooth, slightly shining. 

 Plant deep green, the stem and veins often tinged with red, the whole 

 plant frequently becoming bright red in autumn. Stem often with 

 Imes of short hairs ; underside of the leaf veins papillose. 



I have retained the name " obtusifolius " for this species, as it is the 

 one generally applied to it, and doubtless Linno3us included it under 

 that name, though Fries is probably correct in considering that he more 



