POLYGONACEtf]. 



709 



broadly ovate, are never cordate, and 

 are bordered below the middle by a few 

 small teetb, usually ending in a fine 

 point. As in the curled D., one or all 

 three segments have a small tubercle at 

 the base. 



In the same situations and at least as 

 widely spread and as common as the 

 curled D., with which and the red-veined 

 D. it is usually mixed. Yery abundant 

 in Britain. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 852. 



4. Water Dock. Rumex Hydrolapathum, Huds. (Fig. 853.) 



(i?. aquaticus, Eng. Bot. t. 2104.) 



Stem 3 to 5 feet high, slightly branched. 

 Leaves long, lanceolate or oblong, 

 usually pointed, and flat or only very 

 minutely crisped at the edges ; the lower 

 ones often 1 to 2 feet long, narrowed at 

 the base into a long erect footstalk. 

 Panicle long and rather dense, leafy at 

 the base, the branches scarcely spread- 

 ing. Inner perianth- segments ovate, 

 not so broad as in the curled D., and 

 never cordate, entire or scarcely tooth- 

 ed, with a large oblong tubercle on all 

 three, or rarely wanting on one of them. 

 On the edges of streams and pools, 

 and in watery ditches, in central and 

 northern Europe and Russian Asia, but 

 not an Arctic plant. G-enerally dis- 

 persed over England, Ireland, and south- 

 ern Scotland. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 853. 



