HEXANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Rum ex. 
457 
bury. Mr. Aikin. Burntisland, and between Kinghorn and Pettycur. 
Mr. Neills in Grev. Edin. P. July—Sept. E.) 
(Var. 2. Flowers fewer, and in more distant whorls ; valves less bright in 
colour, and with shorter setaceous teeth. 
Curt. 163— E. Bot. 1932— Loh. Obs. 151. 2; and Ic. i. 286. 1— Ger. Em. 
389. 2— Park. 1225. 8— J. B. ii. 987. 2 —Pet. 2. 7. 
Root without reddish brown, within carmine red. Leaves sometimes 
found with reddish veins, as those of R. sanguineus. Valves green, with 
two or three fine long teeth on each side. Curt. Stem furrowed, 
roughish, sometimes tinged with red. Radical leaves large, fully a span 
long, and three or four inches broad; those intermixed with the flowers 
strictly linear. 
Yellow Marsh .Dock. R. palustris. Sm. With. Ed. 6. Hook. R. marit - 
imus. With. Ed. 3 and 4. Curt. Hull. Lapathum aureum. Dill, in R. 
Syn. In marshes, ditches, and waste boggy ground, remote from the 
sea. Tothill Fields, St. George’s Fields, and various places about Lon¬ 
don. Ray, Curtis. By Acle Dam, Norfolk. Mr. Pitchford. At Saham, 
Norfolk. Sir. J. E. Smith. Sunderland Ballast Hills. Mr. Winch. In 
Angus-shire. Mr. G. Don, in Hook. Scot. 
Smith observes of these two plants, that “ the form of the petals, when in 
seed, is no less permanently distinct, than the number, shape, length and 
situation of the teeth which border themnevertheless, on examining 
various specimens, we cannot concur in considering them distinct species : 
an opinion entertained by Prof. Hooker, previously by Relhan, and also 
latterly by Mr. Dawson Turner. E.) 
R. oetusifo'lius. Outer valve more decidedly tubercled: radical 
leaves heart-shaped, obtuse: stem scabrous upwards. E.) 
Curt. 168— (E. Bot. 1999. E.)— Lob. Ic. i. 285. 1—Ger. Em. 388. 3— 
Park. 1225. 4— Pet. 2. 9— Munt. Brit. 68 ; Phyt. 187— Ger. 312. 3— 
J. B. ii. 985. 1. 
Stem-leaves spear-shaped, pointed. Woodw. Stems about two feet high, 
furrowed and set with short white transparent bristles. Leaves curled at 
the edge, ribs downy; the upper heart-strap-spear-shaped, the lower 
ones oval at the end. Leafstalks shorter than the breadth of the leaves. 
Fruit-stalks sprinkled near the top with white shining globules. Pedicles 
surrounded near the base by an indistinct cartilaginous ring. Calyx- 
leaves boat-shaped, nearly as long as the petals. Petals spear-shaped, flat, 
not very evidently toothed : that with the largest grain outermost when 
the fruit-stalk bends downwards, and with the longest teeth: none of the 
teeth equal in length to the diameter of the petal. (Remarkable for its 
large and broad radical leaves. E.) 
Broad-leaved Dock. (Welsh: Tafolen gyffredin. E.) Amongst rub¬ 
bish, farm-yards, courts, and sides of ditches. P. July—Aug.* 
* Fallow Deer eat both this and R. acutns with avidity, biting it close to the root, so that 
it is very rare to see a Dock growing in a deer park : but in other pasture lands few weeds 
are so troublesome as this most common Dock. (Curtis affirms that it may be destroyed by 
repeated mowing, though probably the use of the docking-iron will be found a more certain 
remedy. Its broad leaves were formerly much used for the wrapping up of butter, and 
hence the plant was called Butter-Dock. In the north of England Docks are sometimes 
boiled as food for pigs. Apion Rumicis is found upon this species. E.) 
