POLYGONACE. 51 
abrupt or gradually attenuated at the base, subacute, repand, and 
rather strongly crisped at the margins; petioles semicylindrical, flat 
above, with a prominent margin on each side decurrent from the base of 
the lamina; lower stem leaves similar to the radical ones, but narrower. 
on shorter stalks, and more acute; leaves at the base of the whorls 
strapshaped-elliptical, subsessile. Branches of the panicle erect, leafless, 
except at the base. Pedicels slender, not much longer than the fruit 
petals, articulated a little below the middle, spreading nearly all round 
the stem. Flowers perfect. Enlarged petals in fruit deltoid-orbicular, 
deeply cordate at the base, obtuse, entire or faintly denticulate, rather 
faintly reticulated; one of the two lower ones considerably smaller 
than the upper one, and all three with the midrib merely slightly 
thickened, not raised into a distinct tubercle. 
In wet meadows and by the side of streams and ditches, also by 
roadsides and in cultivated fields. Rather common, and generally 
distributed throughout Scotland and the north of England, but not 
known to occur south of Yorkshire. 
England, Scotland. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 
R. domesticus is probably often confounded with R. crispus, but 
the radical leaves are much larger, 6 to 15 inches long, and much 
broader in proportion, and also not so much crisped. The branches 
of the panicle are usually more densely flowered. The pedicels are 
shorter in proportion to the fruit petals, and articulated nearer to the 
middle. ‘The fruit petals are much larger, } to 3 inch long, rounder, 
more cordate, of a more membranous texture, and without any evident 
tubercle, although the midrib is sometimes raised at the base so as to 
form the rudiment of one. The nut is narrower, the faces being 
ovate instead of roundish-ovate, and it is a little larger than that of 
2. crispus. The plant is hardly ever tinged with red, the fruit petals 
remain of a pale olive, and when fully ripe become tinged with pale 
dull brown. 
The panicle is more compact and fusiform in R. domesticus than 
in any of the British Rumices except R. alpinus. 
Grainless Curled Dock. 
French, Patience domestique. German, Haus-Ampfer. 
SPECIES XL—RUMEX HYDROLAPATHUM. Zuds. 
Prats MCCXX. 
R. aquaticus, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 2104 (non Iinn.). 
Leaves subcoriaceous, the radical ones elliptical or elliptical-oblanceo- 
late, gradually attenuated at the base, and insensibly decurrent into flat 
H 2 
U. OF ILL. LIB. 
