HEXANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Rumex. 195 



elongated, bluntly lanceolate ; in their upper half quite entire j 

 in the lower furnished at each side with 3 taper teeth, much 

 shorter than the petal itself ; the disk of each bearing an ob- 

 long, reddish, prominent tubercle. The whorls when in fruit as- 

 sume a tawny aspect, but far short of the golden hue of the last. 

 Many eminent botanists have confounded these two species, 

 though the form of their petals, when in seed, is no less per- 

 manently distinct, than the number, shape, length and situa- 

 tion of the teeth which border them. There are several foreign 

 species nearly allied to them, but equally distinct. 



8. R. Hijdrolapathum. Great Water Dock. 



Permanent petals ovate-oblong, nearly entire, unequally 

 tuberculated. Leaves lanceolate, acute at each end. 

 Whorls rather crowded, almost entirely leafless. 



R. Hydrolapathum. Hwds. 154. rVilld.v.2.2D\. lVith.355. Sibth. 

 118. Abbot 82. Woodv. Med. Bat. t. 1/8. Purt. r. 1. 185. r.3, 

 253. 



R. aquaticus. Fl. Br. 394. Engl. Bat. v. 30. t. 2104. Hull ed. 2. 

 V. 1. 102. Light/. 190. Hook. Scot. 112. Relh. 144. Ehrh. Pi. 

 Q/f. 114. 



R. Britannica. Huds. ed. 1. 135. 



Lapathum n. 1588. Hall. Hist. v.2.27\. 



L. maximum aquaticum, sive Hydrolapathum. Rati Syn. 140. 

 Bauh.Hist. w. 2. 986./. 987. 



Great Water Dock. Pet. H. Brit. t. 2.f. 1 . 



In marshland ditches, stagnant waters, and the margins of great 

 rivers, abundantly. 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root large and tuberous, with numerous long hairy fibres. Stem 

 from 4 to 6 feet high, erect, stout, hollow, cylindrical, with nu- 

 merous deep furrows, and strong, intermediate, smooth, reddish 

 ridges, branched, leafy, copiously panicled. Leaves stalked, lan- 

 ceolate, acute, smooth, slightly glaucous, coriaceous, entire, 

 but minutely crisped at the edges ; tapering, not heart-shaped, 

 at the base j the lowermost often near 2 feet in length ; the 

 uppermost small and narrow, almost linear, accompanying 2 or 

 3 of the lower whorls. Branches of the panicle a httle zigzag, 

 beset with numerous, close, many-flowered whorls, most of them 

 leafless. FL drooping, on stalks of very unequal lengths, swelling 

 at the top, and jointed, like all the foregoing, towards the base. 

 Petals in every stage much longer than the calyx, finally ovate- 

 oblong, obtuse, reticulated with prominent veins, for the most 

 part entire at the margin, though several of them are Avavy or 

 notched, hardly toothed ; one or two of them bear an ovate- 

 oblong, reddish tubercle, and the third a smaller one ; but the 

 tubercles, though generally present on every petal, vary remark- 

 ably in size and shape. Seed ovate, acute, with thin sharp angles. 



o2 



