76 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



with short hairs, and so ohrujuely truncate as to form a point at one 

 side. Ivaceraes si)ikehke, oblong or cylindrical, erect or drooping, 

 solitary or in pairs at the extremity of the stem and branches, panicu- 

 late or racemoso-paniculate, short or elongate, dense or lax, continuous, 

 rarely interrupted at the base, almost always leafless at the base. 

 Peduncles rough with small yellowish glands; pedicels shorter thim 

 the nut, articulated immediately below the perianth with a few small 

 yellow glands. Perianth coloured, sprinkled with minute yellow 

 glands, and with rather prominent veins in fruit. Stamens 6. Styles 

 2, free nearly down to the base. Nut a little longer or a little shorter 

 than the perianth, suborbicular, acuminated into a short point, much 

 compressed, concave on each face, very finely shagreened, shining. 

 Leaves with minute dots and remote small yellow superficial glands 

 beneath ; ochrea3 furnished with similar glands. 



Var. a, genuinum. 



Plate MCCXXXIX. 

 P. lapathifolium, Aud. Plur. 



Upper ochrete indistinctly ciliated, and with a long point ; lower 

 and middle ochrea3 not ciliated. Spikes when young not agglo- 

 merated into a thyrsus, in fruit oblong or ovoid-oblong, very dense, 

 erect or slightly drooping. Perianth rather shorter than the nut, 

 strongly veined, greenish white, rarely dull pink. 



(?) Var. jS, nodosum. 



Plate MCCXL. 



P. nodosum, Reich, et Auct, Plar. (non Fers. ?), 

 P. laxum, Ecich. Bab. Engl. Bot. Snpp. No. 2822. 



Upper ochrece distinctly ciliated, and the lower ones generally in- 

 distinctly so. Spikes when young agglomerated into a thyrsus; in 

 fruit oblong or cylindrical, dense or rather lax, generally drooping. 

 Perianth longer than the nut, rather strongly veined, generally red 

 or flesh colour. Nut about half the size of that of var. a. 



In cultivated ground, wet and waste places. Var. a very common, 

 and generally distributed throughout the three kingdoms. Var. 3 

 rather rare, but widely disti-ibuted in England ; rare in Ireland, and 

 perhaps erroneously recorded from thence. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Var. a, the typical and more common form, has the nuts consider- 



