i 



POLYGONACEiE. 445 



Leaves, at least the lower ones, hastate (with acute auricles). 

 Flowers mostly unisexual (Sokeels). 

 Leaves oblong or broadly lanceolate. Inner segments of the 



fruiting perianth enlarged and orbicular 9. Sorrel D, 



Leaves narrow-lanceolate or linear. Inner segments of the 



fruiting perianth not enlarged 10. Sheep-sorrel S. 



Besides the above, the alpine D. {R. alpinus, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2694), 

 from the mountains of continental Europe, formerly cultivated for its root, 

 a very broad-leaved species of true Dock, with entire, gi-ainless perianth- 

 segments, and the French-sorrel D. {R. scutatus), also a common plant iu 

 Continental mountains, sometimes cultivated as a Sorrel, have both been 

 met with occasionally in Scotland or northern England, near the gardens 

 from which they had escaped, but neither of them appears to be really 

 established in Britain. 



1. Grainless Dock. Rumes aquaticus, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2698.) 



Closely resembles the larger and denser- flowered forms of the curled B., 

 of w;hich it may be a luxuriant variety. The leaves are usually not so much 

 crisped, sometimes nearly flat, and often 9 or 10 inches long and full 3 inches 

 broad; the panicle long and much crowded; but the chief difierence is in the 

 inner segments of the fruiting perianth, which are of the same shape, but 

 have no tubercle, although a slight tliickening of the midrib may be some- 

 times observed. 



In rather rich and moist situations, in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, 

 and America, and in the mountains of central Europe. In Britain, chiefly 

 in Scotland and the north of England. Fl. summer. 



2. Curled Dock. Ruiuex crispus, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1998.) 



Stem 2 to 3 feet high, with but few branches, usually short, and seldom 

 spreading. Radical leaves long and narrow, usually much waved or crisped at 

 the edges, and about 6 to 8 inches long, but varying much in size ; the upper 

 ones smaller and narrower, gradually passing into mere bracts. Whorls of 

 flowers numerous, and when in fruit much crowded in a long narrow pani- 

 cle, although the slender pedicels are reaUy longer than the perianths. 

 Inner segments of the fruiting perianth broadly ovate, more or less cordate, 

 one of them bearing on the midrib an ovoid or oblong, coloured tubercle or 

 grain, whilst the others have the midrib only a httle tliickeued, except in 

 more southern varieties, where all three have often a tubercle. 



On roadsides, in ditches, pastm-es, and waste places, tlu-oughout Europe 

 and Russian Asia, except the extreme north, and (probably naturalized) in 

 many other parts of the globe. Abundant in Britain. FL summer. Spe- 

 cimens are occasionally found vdth the leaves rather broader and the 

 perianth-segments very slightly toothed, showing an approach to the broad 

 D. These are by some beUeved to be hybrids between the two species, by 

 others considered as a distinct species {R. pratensis, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 

 2757, a specimen very near the hroad D.) 



3. Broad Dock. Rumex obtusifolius, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1999.) 

 Stem 2 or 3 feet high, and but slightly branched, as in the curled D., 

 which it much resembles. It differs however in the broader leaves, the 



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