Part 6

=Range and habitat.=—The species most commonly employed in medicine is the yellow dock, a perennial introduced from Europe and now found throughout the United States as a troublesome and very persistent weed in cultivated as well as waste ground, among rubbish heaps, and along roadsides.

=Description.=—The deep, spindle-shaped root sends up an erect, angular, and furrowed stem about 2 to 4 feet high, leafy, branching near the top, and bearing numerous elongated clusters of inconspicuous flowers. The leaves are lance-shaped, acute, with the margins strongly waved and crisped. The lower leaves are obtuse or heart shaped at the base, from 6 to 8 inches in length, and are borne on long stalks, while those nearer the top are narrower and shorter, being only 3 to 6 inches long, on short stems or stemless.

From June to August the yellow dock puts forth, interspersed with leaves, its many long dense clusters of green, drooping groups of inconspicuous flowers placed in circles around the stem.

Broad-leaved Dock. Rumex obtusifolius L.

=Other common names.=—Bitter dock, common dock, blunt-leaved dock, butter dock. (Fig. 6.)

=Range and habitat.=—The range of this very common weed extends from the New England States to Oregon and south to Florida and Texas; it occurs in waste places.

=Description.=—Broad-leaved dock differs from the yellow dock principally in its more robust habit of growth. It grows to about the same height, but its stem is stouter, and the leaves, which are wavy along the margin as in the yellow dock, are much broader and longer. The lower leaves have long stalks, and are from 6 to 14 inches in length, with heart-shaped or roundish bases, while the upper ones are from 2 to 6 inches long and are on short stalks.

The green flowers appear from June to August, and are in rather long, open clusters, the groups rather loose and far apart. In all of the docks here mentioned, the three inner divisions of the calyx (outer covering of flower) in fruiting form a kind of triangular nut, like the grain of buckwheat (to which family, Polygonaceæ, the docks belong), and one or more of these divisions bear on the back a small granule. The difference between flower and fruit is barely distinguishable when seen from a little distance so long as the fruit is immature, both being green, but later in the season, as the fruit ripens, the spikes take on a rusty-brown color. (Fig. 7.)

Yellow-rooted Water Dock. Rumex britannica L.

=Habitat and range.=—As the common name indicates, this plant frequents swampy and wet places and banks of streams. It is found from Canada to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and westward to Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.

=Description.=—The yellow-rooted water dock is a taller plant than either of the docks previously mentioned, its stout stem sometimes reaching a height of 6 feet. The leaves at the base of the plant are borne on long stalks, and are from 1 to 2 feet in length, but, as with the other two species, the leaves toward the top of the plant are shorter, as are also the stalks supporting them. The densely flowered clusters are not as leafy as in the preceding species mentioned. The plant flowers from July to August.

Dock Roots.

The root, which is the part to be collected for medicinal purposes, is very similar in all of these species of dock (figs. 7 and 8), usually from 8 to 12 inches long, fleshy, often somewhat branched, the outside dark reddish-brown with a rather thick bark, internally yellowish. It possesses but a very faint odor and a bitter, astringent taste. The roots should be collected in late summer or autumn after the fruiting tops have ripened, then washed, split lengthwise into halves or quarters, and carefully dried.

The docks are largely employed for purifying the blood and as a remedy in skin diseases.

=Imports and prices.=—Rumex or dock roots are imported into this country to the extent of about 125,000 pounds annually. The price ranges from 2 to 8 cents per pound.

COUCH GRASS. Agropyron repens (L.) Beauv. (Triticum repens L.)

=Other common names.=—Dog-grass, quick-grass, quack-grass, quitch-grass, scutch-grass, twitch-grass, witch-grass, wheat-grass, Chandler’s grass, creeping wheat-grass, devil’s-grass, durfa-grass, Durfee-grass, Dutch-grass, Fin’s grass, quake-grass. (Fig. 9.)

=Range and habitat.=—Couch grass, like so many other pernicious weeds, was introduced into this country from Europe, and is now a most troublesome pest in cultivated ground, causing the farmer a loss of thousands of dollars annually by taking possession of fields and crowding out valuable crops. It is most abundant from Maine to Maryland, and westward to Minnesota and Missouri, but is rather sparingly distributed in the South. It is gaining ground on farms on the Pacific slope.

=Description.=—This rather coarse grass produces several stems, 1 to 3 feet high, from a long, creeping, jointed rootstock, and bears densely flowered spike-like heads resembling those of rye or beardless wheat. The stems are round, smooth, thickened at the joints, and hollow, bearing from five to seven leaves. These have a long cleft sheath, and are rough on the upper surface. The heads or spikes are terminal, solitary, compressed, with two rows of spikelets on a wavy and flattened axis.

Couch grass is one of the most difficult weeds to eradicate, on account of the long jointed rootstock, each joint of which is capable of producing a new plant. Every bit of the rootstock must therefore be removed from the soil or killed in order to eradicate it.

=Part used.=—The most important part of this grass, not only agriculturally but also pharmaceutically, is its long, tough rhizome or rootstock, creeping along underneath the ground and pushing in every direction. It is pale yellow, smooth, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, with joints at intervals of about an inch from which slender branching rootlets are produced.

One of the best methods of destroying this weed is to plow up the roots and burn them. They need not be burned, however, but may be saved and prepared for the drug market. After the rootstocks have been collected and washed the rootlets should be removed and the rhizome or rootstock (not the rootlets) cut into short pieces about two-fifths of an inch long. An ordinary feed-cutting machine may be used for this purpose. These should then be dried as suggested in the general instructions.

In the drug trade this plant is generally known as dog grass or triticum. As found in the stores, it is in the form of small, angular pieces, about one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, straw colored, shining, and hollow. These pieces are odorless but have a somewhat sweetish taste.

The fluid extract prepared from dog grass is used in kidney and bladder troubles.

=Imports and prices.=—Couch grass is almost wholly an imported article, some 250,000 pounds coming into this country annually from Europe. The price is about 3 to 7 cents per pound.

POKEWEED. Phytolacca americana L. (Phytolacca decandra L.)

=Other common names.=—Poke, pigeon-berry, garget, scoke, pocan, coakum, Virginian poke, ink-berry, red-ink-berry, American nightshade, cancer jalap, redweed. (Fig. 10.)

=Range and habitat.=—Pokeweed is common in rich, moist soil along fence rows, margins of fields, and in uncultivated land from the New England States to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. It is native in this country and naturalized in Europe, where it is regarded as an ornamental garden plant.