RHIZOMA GRAMINIS. 720 



making tatties or screens, which are placed in windows and doorways, 

 and when wetted, diffuse an agreeable odour and coolness. It is also 

 used for making ornamental baskets and many small articles, and lias 

 some reputation as a medicine. 



Botanical Origin — Agropyruni repens P. Beauv. (Tritici 

 pens L.), a widely diffused weed, growing in fields and waste pi; 

 all parts of Europe, in Northern Asia down to the region south 



RHIZOMA GRAMINIS. 



Badix Graminis; Couch Grass, Quitch Grass, Dogs Grass; F. Chien- 

 dent commu7i ou Petit Chiendent; G. Queckemvurzel, Graswwrzd. 



* 



Botanical Origin — Agropyrurn repens P. Beauv. (Triticum re- 

 „ T \ -in 1..^ -, 1 . . o n __ 1 _ . _x. - ij^ces in 



-— J ^^xv^p^, ^^ ^i^x^x.wxx -L^^.M, V.V.,. X. ^^ w..^ ..^.„^ of the 



Caspian, also in North America; and in South America to Patagonia 

 and Tierra del Fuego. 



History — The ancients were familiar with a grass termed "'Ay/xoo'Ti? 



, and Gramen, having a creeping rootstock like that under notice. It ia 



impossible to determine to what species the plant is referable, though it 



is probable that the grass Cynodon Dactylon Pers., as well as Agropymm 



repens, was included under these names. 



Dioscorides asserts that its root taken in tlie form of decoction, is a 

 useful remedy in suppression of urine and vesical calculus. The same 

 statements are made by Pliny ; and again occur in the writings of On- 

 basius' and Marcellus Empiricus' in the 4th, and of Aetius'^ in the Gth 

 century, and are repeated in the mediaeval herbals,^ where also figures 

 of the plant may be found, as for instance in Dodon?eus. The drug is 

 also met with in the German pharmaceutical tariffs of the 16th century. 

 Turner' and Gerarde both ascribe to a decoction of grass root dmrctic 

 and lithontriptic virtues. The drug is still a domestic remedy in great 

 repute in France, being taken as a demulcent and sudorific in the torm 

 of tisane. 



Description-Couch-grass has a long, stiff, pale yellow, smooth 



rhizome, -^V of an inch in diameter, creeping close under the surtace oi 



■ the ground, occasionally branching, marked at intervals of about an men 



ty nodes, which bear slender branching roots and the remains ot sheatn- 



ing rudimentary leaves. ^ . ^,i i.^ „„f 



. As found in the shops, the rhizome is always free from ro^f ^f^^^^^ 

 ^nto short lengths of i to i of an inch, and dried. It is thus i^ the ioi m 

 of little, shining, straw-coloured, many-edged, tubular pieces, vvhich aic 

 Without odour, but have a slightly sweet taste. 



Microscopic Structure-A transverse section of this rHfome s^^^^^^ 

 U^o different p'^rtions of tissue, separated by the ^--called n«ck^^^^^^^^ 

 The latter consists of an unbroken ring of prismatic <^P"^' ^"^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 those occurring in sarsaparilla. In Rhizoma (^JlX t^^^^^^ 

 of the tissue exhibits a diffuse circle of about 20 1^^^ ^ f^^^j^ 

 interior part about the same number of fibro-vasculaz bundles more 



: ^e virtute slmplidum, cap. i. (Agrostis). d^^^^^f us^jus . . ^vale 



^etrabibh pnmae, sermoi. « rf l!.// T^arf 2 1568 13 



,/ As in the Hcrhakus Patavi^ printed in ' Herball, part 2, lob». 



'^oo, in which it is saiH nf /7rrtH7fl».— " aaua 



contra dissuriam 



. • » • 



