\ 
\ 
\ 
487 
are c 
d valves ; thefe are very 
towards the bafe, and furnifhed with an obi 
i 
nted 
y 
r 
ddle of 
the feed 
1 oblong gram, extending d 
folitary, ovate, triangular. 
is 
a native of England, growing in ditches, pools, and rivers, 
flowers in July and Auguft 
d 
to 
The HydroJapathum of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia is referred 
the R. aquaticus of Linnaeus, which is fuppofed to be a different 
fpecies from the Hydrolapa 
fynonyms are 
thum of Mr. Hudfon, a though the fame 
afcribed to both. 
was found in the river Rodon, near Woodford Bridge 
* o 
The plant here reprefented, which 
, by havin 
toothed valves, does not agree with the fpecific char 
a 
A- 
X 
lven 
by 
either of thefe authors; but it feems to correfpond exa&ly with the 
defcription of it fubjoined by Dr. Withering. 5 ' 
t 
■ 
The root, which is the part of this* plant direded for medicinal 
ufe, has a ftrong auftere tafte, and readily ftrikes a black colour to a 
folution of ferrum vitriolatum, and yields its active matter both to 
water and to rectified fpirit. 
Many of the Lapatha c were formerly officinal herbs, of which the 
Water Dock has been elteemed to be the moil efficacious, and by the 
Edinburgh College is Hill retained in the Materia Medica : the leaves, 
which manifeft confiderable acidity, are faid to poffefs a laxative 
quality, and have therefore been ufed to obviate coftivenefs : the roots 
are ftrongly aftringent, and have been much employed both externally 
and internally for the cure of icurvy; d efpecially when the gums are 
gy, and frequent haemorrhages fupervene. It is alfo recommended 
in various other cutaneous defcedations, and in vifceral obftruclions : 
and in order to give the Hydroiapathum additional importance, Mun- 
tingius has taken great pains to prove that it is the. Herba- Britannica 
fpon 
a £. 
C- 
b L. c; 
From Xxnxfy, evacuo x«7rr<w, idem. Alftbn. 
Si dura morabitur alvus, 
Mitulus & viles pellent obflacula conchae 
Et Lapathi brevis herba. 
Horat. Sat. 4. lib. 2. v. 27 
*t\ 
^innaeus fpeaks highly of its ufe. Vide Amcen. vol. 4. p. 38; Flor. Suec. p. 118. 
A»d in hind's. Treatife. en the Scurvy y p, 264. . 
No. 36. 
6 
of 
