524 RUMEX. [CLASS VI. ORDER III. 



heavt-sbaped at the base, and mostly contracted about the middle into 

 a fiddle-shape (panduiiformis), the margins more or less waved and 

 crisped, of a bright green, paler beneath. Flowers not very numerous 

 in a whorl, on rather short drooping footstalks. Perianth of six 

 pieces, the three outer ones thick, narrow, concave, the three inner 

 becoming oblong, ovate, the margins deeply toothed, reticulated with 

 veins, and each one swollen at the base of the mid-rib, but mostly only 

 one becoming an oblong reddish fleshy tubercle. Stamens with yellow 

 linear anthers and short filaments. Nuts ovate, acute at each end, 

 smooth and shining, sharply three angled. 



Habitat. — Road sides, pastures, and waste places ; not unfrequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in August. 



The leaves of this species, though not always contracted about the 

 middle into the remarkable panduriform shape, they are generally so ; 

 but it is readily distinguished by its long slender straggling branches 

 of leafy whorls and toothed segments of the perianth. 



9. R. obtusifo'lius, Linn. (Fig. 600.) Broad-leaved Dock. Enlarged 

 pieces of the perianth ovate, triangular, toothed at the base, the point 

 oblong, obtuse, entire, mostly only one bearing a tubercle ; leaves 

 ovate, heart-shaped; stem with erect branches; whorls numerous, 

 distant, nearly leafless. 



English Botany, t. 1999.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 192.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 173. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 210. 



13. discolor. Stem, petioles, veins of the leaves, and panicle, of a 

 crimson colour. R. purpureus, Poir. diet. 5. p. 163. 



Root tapering, fleshy. Stem erect, from two to three feet high, 

 stout, angular, furrowed, rough between the furrows, leafy, alternately 

 branched with erect simple or divided branches, bearing numerous 

 rather distant whorls, of crowded flowers, the lower whorls only being 

 accompanied with leaves, which are narrow, lanceolate, becoming 

 linear, the lower and radical ones ovate, heart-shaped at the base, the 

 point obtuse or acute, the margins more or less waved and crisped, the 

 footstalks channeled and striated, and green, as well as the leaf, which 

 is paler beneath, the mid-rib and veins more or less rough, with short 

 flat hairs, and in the var (3. the whole veins and ribs are of a crimson 

 colour, otherwise it is not difi"erent. Flowers numerous, in rather 

 distant whorls, on long slender peduncles, jointed about the middle, 

 drooping perianth of six pieces, the three outer ones narrow, fleshy, 

 concave, pointed, the three inner much enlarged after flowering, be- 

 coming ovate or ovate oblong, triangular at the base, and the margin 

 on each side with three or four teeth, sometimes small, but mostly awl- 

 shaped, slender, and the point is oblong, almost ligulate, acute or 

 obtuse at the point, and entire, reticulated with veins, the mid-rib 

 swollen at the base, but mostly only one into a tubercle, which is small, 

 ovate, reddish brown, Stamens with linear ovate yellow anthers and 



