N. ORD.—POLYGO NACE SS 144 
GENUS.—RUMEX, LINN. 
SEX, SYST.-HEXANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 
LAPATHUM. 
BITTER DOCK. 
SYN.—RUMEX OBTUSIFOLIUS, LINN.; R. DIVARICATUS, ELL.; LAPA- 
THUM ACUTUM. 
COM. NAMES.—BITTER DOCK, BLUNT-LEAVED DOCK; (GER.) GRIND- 
WURZ. 
A TINCTURE OF THE ROOT OF RUMEX OBTUSIFOLIUS, LINN. 
Description.—This roughish perennial weed is of similar growth to the pre- 
ceding species. Root brownish, thick, and branching ; s¢em angular and sulcate. 
Leaves rather downy upon the veins underneath and somewhat wavy margined ; 
the lower ovate, cordate, mostly obtuse; the upper lanceolate and acute at both 
ends. /Zowers in loose and distant whorls below, more crowded above; pedicels 
recurved. Valves ovate-hastate, strongly reticulate, with a few sharp, awl-shaped 
teeth at the base, one of them principally grain-bearing. (Read description of 
Rumex, page 143.) 
History and Habitat.—The Bitter Dock is in Europe a domestic weed of the 
worst description—a trait that well characterizes its naturalized state here, where 
it has rapidly spread wherever man has settled, defacing his fields, gardens, and 
lawns. It is much harder to exterminate than R. crispus, on account of its branch- 
ing roots, which, like the star-fish, will increase and multiply the faster if broken, 
cut, or bruised. It flowers a month later than the yellow dock, and fruits at the 
same period, 
The use of this species in medicine is not so prominent as that of A. crispus, 
though it is more bitter, and, if anything, more common. “A decoction of bitter 
dock root is highly efficacious in obstinate cases of the kind of skin disease called 
ichthyosis; and when taken in large quantity—as well, indeed, as the decoction 
of any of the fusiform dock roots—it acts as a purgative, in the same manner as 
the powder or tincture of Turkey rhubarb.” * ae 
The following European and American species of the genus manifest, with 
R. obtusifolius, a certain line of generic usefulness: Water Dock (2. aguaticus) ; 
Yellow Water Dock (2. Britannica) ; and Sharp Dock (R. acutus). The common 
Horse Sorrel (2. acetocella) is refrigerant, diuretic, and antiscorbutic—characters 
which also pervade 2. acetosa, which yields, in Switzerland, part of the Oxalic Acid 
of commerce. R. acetosa is also highly esteemed in many districts as an esculent, | 
* Wilson’s Rural Cyc. 
