50 ENGLISH EOTANY. 



By roadsides, in waste places, cultivated ground, pastures, &c. Veiy 

 common, and generally distributed. 



Enf^land, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Eootstock thick. Stem erect, 18 inches to 4 feet high, branched. 

 Eadical leaves 5 to 9 inches long, much more crisped at the margins 

 than in any of the preceding species. Whorls with rather numerous 

 flowers, generally approxhnate. Pedicels slender, articulated nearer 

 to the base than to the middle, bent downwards at the articulation, or 

 a little above it. Fruit petals I to i inch long, olive, frequently 

 tino-ed with a dull brownish red, generally quite entire, but sometimes 

 subdenticulate in the lower half, but much less deeply so than in R. 

 pratensis and R. conspersus; tubercle on the uppermost petal about 

 half as long as the petal ; those of the two other petals generally rudi- 

 mentary, but sometimes nearly as large and prominent as that on the 

 upper petals. Nut with roundish- ovate faces, much acuminated, y^ inch 

 long, brown, smooth, shining. Plant dull green, the stem and leaves 

 frequently tinged with purplish-brown, especially in autumn. Plant 

 glabrous, or with a few hairs on the stem ; lateral veins of the leaves 

 slightly papillose beneath. 



The specimens which I have seen of the form with all the petals 

 bearing tubercles, have the fruit petals smaller and rather narrower 

 in proportion than that which has a distinct tubercle on the upper 

 petal only. 



Curled Dock. 



Frencli, Patience crepue. German, Krauser-Ampfer. 



The origin of the common name of this plant and its allies is very obscure, and 

 even Dr. Prior does not appear to have ascertained it satisfactorily. He says, " It is 

 not at all obvions how the words, dilla, paradella, padella, and dona came to be 

 applied to the broad-leaved plants called dock in later times, viz. the water-lilies, 

 mallows, burdocks, and sorrels. Possibly from their external application as soothing 

 remedies to tender siirfaces, those last were comprised under the same category as 

 the dills or carminative plants used to lull pain. Old herbals and vocabularies give 

 no support to the view of some etymologists, that dock means ' stump.' It was not 

 confined to stumpy plants, and tliero is no such word as docli, with the meaning of 

 'stump,' in the ancient Saxon language." The Curled Dock is applicable to all the 

 purposes for which the other species are used. The fresh roots, bruised and made 

 into an ointment, are said to cure the itch. The seeds have been given with ad-\an- 

 tage in dysentery, 



SPECIES X.— R UMEX DOMESTICUS. Uartm. 

 Plate MCCXIX. 



R. aquaticus, Boolcer in E.B.8. 'Ko. 2G08. Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. cd. v. p. 283. EooTc. 



& Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 374 Benth. in Handbk. Brit. Bot. ed. ii. p. 394 



(non Linn. Herb. I nee Smith). 

 R. longifolius, " B.C." Meisner, in B.C. Prod. Vol. XIY. p. 44. 



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



