712 



THE POLYGONUM FAMILY. 



Fig. 857. 



8. Golden Dock. Eumex maritimus, Linn. (Fig. 857.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 725.) 



Stem 1 to 1^ feet high, often much 

 branched. Leaves narrow-lanceolate or 

 linear. Flowers small and very nume- 

 rous, densely crowded in globular axil- 

 lary whorls, even the upper floral leaves 

 being much longer than the flowers. 

 Pedicels slender but short. Inner seg- 

 ments of the fruiting perianth lanceo- 

 late or triangular, fringed with rather 

 long fine teeth, and with a narrow-ob- 

 long tubercle upon each segment. The 

 whole plant, and especially the perianth, 

 often assumes a yellowish hue. 



In marshes, chiefly near the sea, in 

 temperate Europe and Russian Asia, 

 extending northwards into Scandinavia. 

 In .Britain, apparently confined to Eng- 

 land and Ireland. Fl. summer. A more 

 luxuriant variety, with the whorls more 

 distant, and rather shorter points to the teeth of the perianth- segments, 

 has been distinguished as a species under the name of B. jpalustris 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1932, not good). 



9. Sorrel Dock. Rumex Acetosa, Linn. (Fig. 858.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 127. Sorrel.) 



Stems scarcely branched, 1 to 2 feet 

 high. Leaves chiefly radical, oblong, 3 

 to 5 inches long, sagittate at the base 

 with broad pointed auricles, of a bright 

 green, and very acid ; the stem-leaves 

 few, on shorter stalks. Flowers dioecious 

 or sometimes monoecious, in long, ter- 

 minal, leafless panicles, usually turning 

 red. Inner segments of the fruiting 

 perianth enlarged, orbicular, thin and 

 almost petal-like, quite entire, without 

 any tubercle, but each with a minute 

 scale-like appendage at the base, which, 

 as well as the small outer segments, is 

 turned back on the pedicel. 



In meadows and moist pastures, in 



Europe, central and Russian Asia, and 



I ; , S)S northern America, from the Mediter- 



