142 
RUMEX 
Series v. Pulchres 
Pulchres nobis. 
For characters, see page 133. Only British species: — R. pulcher. 
10. RUMEX PULCHER. Fiddle Dock. Plate 146 
Lapathum pulchrum bononiense sinuatum Ray Syn. ed. 3, 142 (1724). 
Rumex pulcher L. Sp. PI. 336 (1753)!; Syme Eng. Bot. viii, 44 (1868); Rouy FI. France xii, 77 
(1910); Ascherson und Graebner Syn. iv, 705 (1912). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 1576!; Reichenbach Iconogr. Crit. t. 486, fig. 679; Beck in Reichenbach Icon. 
xxiv, t. 183, fig. 1 — 6. 
Camb. Brit. FI. ii. Plate 14.6. (a) Flowering branches. ( b ) Lower part of stem, with stem-leaf, (c) Ground- 
leaf. ( d ) Flowers (enlarged). ( e ) The three persistent perianth-segments (enlarged) of a single fruit. Huntingdon- 
shire (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 3196; Reichenbach, 1737; Schultz (FI. Istr. Exs.) 117. 
Perennial. Root long, tapering. Stem suberect or procumbent, straggling, zigzag, rather slender, 
branched ; branches divaricate, distant. Petioles long. Laminae of the ground-leaves, cordate at the 
base, some or all constricted a little below the middle and thus fiddle-shaped, margin crenulate and 
Map 26. Distribution of Rumex pulcher in the British Isles 
rather wavy, subacute ; of the inflorescence, lanceolate. Inflorescences rather leafy, branches more 
or less divaricate; whorls distant, rather few-flowered. Flowers from June to August. Pedicels 
short, jointed below the middle. Fruiting segments oblong-ovate or ovate-acuminate, margins 
strongly toothed, teeth shorter than the breadth of the segment ; tubercles 3, narrow, 1 much 
larger than the others. Achenes broadly ovate. 
The British plants belong to the var. typicus Beck op. cit. p. 39 (1904) = var. normalis Rouy op. cit. p. 78 (1910). 
Dry waste places, road-sides, rarely in dry pastures, especially near villages ; in lowland 
districts, ascending to nearly 100 m. in Somerset. Channel Islands, Cornwall and Kent to 
Carnarvonshire and Lincolnshire ; local in Wales ; rare in Ireland (co. Cork and co. Waterford). 
Mid-western, central, and southern Europe, southern Russia; Caucasus; Asia Minor; Syria; 
northern Africa; Canary Islands; Madeira; South Africa; North and South America (not in- 
digenous). Ascends to 700 m. in Switzerland and to 800 m. in Montenegro. 
R. condy lodes x pulcher (p. 147) ; R. crispus y pulcher (p. 139) ; R. glomeratus x pulcher (p. 144) ; R. 
obtusifolius y pulcher (p. 141). 
