11-:? 
RUMEX ACETOSA. 
Common Sorrel.* 
Class Hexandria. — Order Trigynia. 
Nat. Ord. Holorace^, Linn. Polygone^e Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx three-leaved. Petals three, converging. 
Seed one, three-sided. 
Spec. Char. Flowers declined, male and female, on distinct 
plants. Leaves oblong, arrow-shaped. 
The genus Rumex comprises a numerous tribe of plants, natives of 
almost every country and climate ;t ten species are indigenous to 
Britain. This native species, (the Acetosa) is a perennial plant, 
common in pastures, flowering in June. The root is slender, long 
and fibrous ; the stalk rises erect, round, striated, from one to two 
feet high, and branched towards the top ; the radical leaves are 
oblong, arrow-shaped, and stand upon long footstalks ; those of the 
stem are sessile, placed alternately, amplexicaule, pointed, and 
slightly rolled back ; the flowers are dioecious, produced in ter- 
minal branched spikes, arranged in half whorls, and stand upon 
short slender peduncles; the calyx consists of three ovate seg- 
ments ; the corolla is composed of three petals, shaped like the 
divisions of the calyx : both the calyx and corolla are partly tinged 
with a pink or reddish colour; the filaments are short and slender, 
bearing large double yellow anthers ; the germen is triangular, sup- 
porting three short, simple, reflexed styles, with large bearded stig- 
mata of a crimson colour ; the seeds are naked, single, of a 
triangular shape. Some writers have referred this plant to the 
Lapathum Quartum of Dioscorides, and to the Lapathum Sylvestre, 
quod alii oxalidem appellant of Pliny. But as the word bsv has 
been indiscriminately used, both to signify sharp in regard to the 
• Fig. a. represents a radical leaf. h. and c. Male flowers, largely magnified, d. A 
female flower, c. The pistillam magnified, shewing the bearded stigmata. /. A single 
stamen, g. The seed. ft. A petal, these three last magnified. 
t Thirty species are cultivated in our botanic gardens. — Horl. Cant, 
