NN; ORD,—POLYGOMACE =. 143 
GENUS.—RU MEX ;* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.-HEXANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 
RUMEX. 
YELLOW DOCK. 
SYN.—RUMEX CRISPUS, LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—YELLOW DOCK, CURLED DOCK, GARDEN PATIENCE, 
NARROW DOCK, SOUR DOCK;; (FR.) PATIENCE FRISEE; (GER.) KRAU- 
SER AMPFER. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH ROOT OF RUMEX CRISPUS, LINN. 
Description.— This smooth, perennial herb, grows to a height of from 2 to 4 
feet. oot deep, large, spindle-shaped, and yellow without and within; s¢em erect, 
sulcate, smooth, paniculately branching above. Leaves all lanceolate, acute, and 
wavy-curled on the margins, the lower large, tufted, and more truncate than cor- 
date at the base, the upper lanceolate, acute at both ends; feéo/es present with all 
the leaves, but very long in the lower. /zflorescence in prolonged, wand-like racemes, 
somewhat leafy below; flowers crowded in whorls along the rachis; fedicels fili- 
form. Valves prominently reticulate, rounded, cordate, obscurely denticulate or 
entire, mostly all of them grain-bearing. 4chenta acuminate, brown, and shining. 
Rumex.—This genus of coarse, homely herbs is characterized as follows: 
Leaves alternate, none of them halbred-shaped; fetzoles somewhat sheathing at 
the base. /zflorescence in crowded whorls, along panicled racemes ; flowers small, 
greenish, perfect or monceciously polygamous; fedzce/s jointed near the base. 
Calyx of 6 herbaceous sepals, the 3 outer reflexed, sometimes united at the base, 
spreading in fruit, the 3 inner (va/ves) larger, veiny, somewhat colored, increasing 
after flowering, and converging over the fruit, often bearing a grain-like tubercle 
upon the dorsal surface of the midrib near its base. Stamens 6, inserted in pairs 
opposite the external sepals; azthers erect. Ovary triquetrous; ovade sessile ; 
styles 3; stigmas tufted. Fruit a 3-angled achenium ; embryo slender, slightly 
curved, and lying along one side of the farinaceous albumen; cotyledons narrow, 
_ incumbent; vadicle pointing upward. 
History and Habitat.—The Docks are some of our most troublesome weeds 
imported from Europe. The Yellow Dock grows in cultivated ground, and along 
roadsides, everywhere in the eastern section of the United States ; where it flowers 
from May until August, and ripens its copious seeds from August to October. 
The root has been used in medicine from ancient times, as a mild astringent tonic, © 
laxative, and depurant, its use being similar to that of rhubarb and of sarsaparilla. 
A decoction of the root has been found useful in dyspepsia, gouty tendencies, ne =. 
* Derivation unknown. 
