64 



large and yellow, adding a third brilliant color to the flowers. 

 The stem is channelled, light green, striped with red ; each 

 whirl of flowers attended by a single leaf. 



BROAD-LEAVED DOCK. Rumex obtusifolius. 



Plate 4, jig. 13. 

 Leaves ovate, blunt. Upper whirls without leaves. 



One of the very commonest species. Known at once by its 

 broad blunt-pointed leaves. The petals are yellow, with a spot 

 of red upon each, and teeth on each edge. The leaves get 

 smaller and sharper pointed towards the upper part of the 

 plants, as in all the other species ; and the three or four upper 

 whirls of the flowers are without leaves. 



COMMON SORREL. Rumex acetosa. 



Plate 4, fig. 14. 

 Leaves oblong, arrow-shaped. Whirls of flowers leafless. 



This is the pleasant -tasted sour plant, the leaves of which 

 children gather in the meadows, and bring home by handsful to 

 eat ; but few of them ever remark the curious drooping red 

 flowers, borne, as in the rest of the tribe, in little bunches 

 round the stem. The flowers of some plants contain only sta- 

 mens ; others the styles or pointals. The petals are of a fine 

 red, and very often the stalks and leaves are reddish also. The 

 leaves have at the lower ends of them two little tapering parts, 

 shaped like horns, and wherever a leaf or branch comes out is 

 a sheath to the stem. The calyx is turned back when the 

 seed is ripening. 



SHEEP'S SORREL. Rumex acetocella. 



Plate 4, fig. 15. 

 Leaves dart-shaped. Whirls of flowers leafless. 



The Latin name, acetocella, means Little Sorrel. Though 

 this plant is very similar to the last, it is very much smaller in 

 all its parts, being seldom more than four or six inches high. 

 It grows too not in meadows, but on hills, in gravelly woods, and 

 on road-sides, and is not so sour in taste. The leaves vary much 



