oe 
48 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
much narrower, and very decidedly acute; the pedicels are longer, and 
the racemes which form the panicle more erect. The enlarged petals 
are } to 4 inch long, and nearly as broad, more or less cordate at the 
base, abruptly acuminated into a short deltoid point; the basal part cut 
into 5 or 8 unequal teeth, the longest of which is not above } the breadth 
of the petal; the two lower enlarged petals purplish red, more rarely olive 
tinged with red, frequently with scarcely any tubercle, and the upper 
one with a very prominent tubercle about half the length of the petal. 
Nut generally abortive, which favours the idea of its hybrid origin; 
when perfect +4; inch long, very broadly ovate-triquetrous, light brown, 
smooth, shining. Professor Babington says he has found the nuts 
abundant and elliptic, while I have never been able to find more than 
3 or 4 on a plant, and all I have seen were much broadest towards the 
base, so that the faces are ovate-acuminate, not elliptic. Plant light 
green, often tinged with dull purplish red, glabrous. 
This plant is so nearly half-way between R. obtusifolious and 
R. crispus that I am much inclined to regard it as a hybrid between 
the two, as suggested by Koch himself. Indeed, the chief point to be 
urged against this view is its great abundance. 
Meadow Dock. 
German, Wiesen Ampfer. 
SPECIES VIL—RUMEX CO NSPERSUS. Hartm. 
Prars MCCXVIL. 
R. confertus, “ Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. p. 397” (Fries). 
Leaves thin, the radical ones broadly oblong, not panduriform, cor- 
date or abrupt at the base, obtuse, repand and considerably undulated 
at the margins; “ petioles flat on the upper side, laterally compressed 
above” (Fries); lower stem leaves similar, but narrower, subobtuse, 
and on shorter stalks; leaves at the base of the whorls elliptical, 
shortly stalked. Branches of panicle ascending, leafless except at the 
very base. Pedicels about 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 roundish-deltoid, subcordate at the 
base, obtuse, cut into numerous very short irregular deltoid teeth 
from the base nearly to the apex, strongly reticulated; one of the two 
lower ones considerably smaller than the upper one, and both with 
very slender linear-lanceolate tubercles, which is sometimes reduced 
to a thickened midrib; the upper petal with a large short ovoid 
tubercle; tubercles not muricated. 
Found by Professor Walker Arnott in Kinrosshire, particularly in 
the parish of Orwell. 
