76 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
with short hairs, and so obliquely truncate as to form a point at one 
side. Racemes spikelike, 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 than 
the nut, articulated immediately below the perianth with a few small 
yellow glands. Perianth coloured, sprinkled with minute yellow 
elands, 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 pot, much 
compressed, concave on each face, very finely shagreened, shining. 
Leaves with minute dots and remote small yellow superficial glands 
beneath; ochrex furnished with similar glands, 
Var. a, genuinum. 
Prats MCCXXXIX 
P. lapathifolium, Awct. Plur. 
Upper ochre indistinctly ciliated, and with a long point; lower 
and middle ochrex 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. 6, nodosum. 
Prats MCCXL, 
P. nodosum, Reich. et Auct. Plur. (non Pers. ?). 
P. laxum, Reich. Bab. Engl. Bot. Supp. No. 2822. 
Upper ochrese 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. «. 
In cultivated ground, wet and waste places. Var. « very common, 
and generally distributed throughout the three kingdoms. Var. PB 
rather rare, but widely distributed in England; rare in Ireland, and 
perhaps erroneously recorded from thence. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Var. «, the typical and more common form, has the nuts consider- 
