Spec. Plant. Willd. ii. 249. Cl. 6. Ord. 2. Hexandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Polygonaceae. G. 699. Calyx three-leaved. Petals three, converging. Seed one, three-sided.

* * Hermaphrodites: with naked valves, or not marked with a grain. Species 18. R. aquaticus. Great Water-dock. Smith, Flora Brit.

394. Med. Bot. 3d edit. t. 299.

* * * With declinous flowers.

Species 31. R. acetosa. Common Sorrel. Med. Bot. 3d edit. t. 230. Smith, Flora Brit. 396.

1. Rumex aquaticus.2

Officinal.------; radix, Dub. The root of Water-dock.

Syn. La Patience aquatique (F.), Wasser Ampfer (G.), Waterpatich (Dutch), Rabaca major (Port.), Wodanoi Schawel (Russ.), Kong-o-lik (Esquimaux).

Water-dock is an indigenous perennial plant, growing in ditches and on the banks of rivers; flowering in July and August. The root is thick. The stem rises about five feet in height, straight, furrowed, and smooth. The leaves are almost glaucous, lanceolate, and pointed, and the lower ones obcordate at the base. The flowers are in approximate whorls. They are nodding, on capillary pedicles, thickened at the apex. The valves are large, ovate, veined, entire, sometimes a little toothed, and all marked with a small, linear, often obscure grain: the seed is large.

Qualities. -The root is nearly inodorous, and has a very austere taste. It yields its virtues to water.

Medical properties and uses.-Water-dock root is powerfully astringent. It was formerly celebrated, under the name Herba Britannica, as a remedy for scurvy, and some cutaneous affections. It is now scarcely ever employed, although it undoubtedly possesses considerable powers in scurvy. Linnaeus, in a letter to Dr. Lind, describing the scurvy of the Laplanders, asserts, that it is the only remedy which proved efficacious in that disease when "the ulcers are healed, and the patient is attacked with asthma."3 I have ascertained that a decoction of one ounce of the sliced root of the common dock, rumex obtusifolius, in a pint of water, is extremely efficacious in obstinate ichthyosis. In a full dose, about two ounces of the decoction, it purges freely; but at the same time improves the tone of the stomach.

1 Vide Phil. Trans, xxxix. 287-299. The leaves of the plant are said to tinge the milk of cows reddish, when eaten by them.

Dioscoridis. 3 Corresnodence of Linnaeus, vol. ii. p. 476.

2. Rumex acetosa.

Officinal. Rumex, Lond.1 Rumisis acetosae folia, Edin. Common Sorrel leaves.

Syn. Oseille ordinaire (F.), Sauer Ampfer (G.), Veldznuring (Belg.), Suram-per(Z)an.), Angsyra (Swed.), Szszaw (Polish), Acetosa (I.), Azedera(S.), Azedas (Portug.).

This is an indigenous perennial plant, common in pastures, and flowering in June. The stem is round, striated, and leafy, and rises from one to two feet in height. The leaves are oblong, ovate, and arrow-shaped; the radical ones petiolate and obtuse; and those of the stem sessile, amplexicaule, pointed, and a little rolled back. The flowers are dioecious, in branched panicles, and arranged in half whorls: the calyx and corolla small: the stamens very short, bearing large yellow anthers, and the styles short, with large, crimson, bearded stigmas. The valves are ovate, entire, and graniferous.

Qualities.-Sorrel leaves are inodorous, and have a grateful, austere, acidulous taste, depending on the presence of binoxalate of potassa and tartaric acid, which they contain.

Medical properties and uses.-These leaves are refrigerant and diuretic. Their expressed juice diluted with water, or a decoction of them in whey, affords a useful drink in cases of inflammatory fever; and eating them in large quantities daily as a salad, may prove serviceable in some cutaneous affections. In France, the plant is cultivated for the use of the table; and Dr. Clarke mentions that the natives of Wermeland, on the confines of Sweden, make it into bread in seasons of scarcity, and that it is not unsalutary.2