174 RUMEX. — DAPHNE. 



I have seen them gathered from the churchyard in Tweedmouth for 

 this purpose !, and very poor people will thus contrive to keep a pig 

 through the summer. The leaves are also used to protect butter from 

 the sun in carrying it to market. From the quickness with which 

 they become dowie and pliable after being pulled, we say of things 

 in general, in a state of relaxation, that " they are as souple as a 

 docken." The fact is often alluded to by popular authors : thus 

 Hogg, in "The Brownie of Bodspeck," describing one taken with 

 sudden fear, says — "but his power failed him an' a' his sinnens grew 

 like JBorfean^." And in " Tom Cringle's Log " we have — "But the 

 iBodkfn, man," said I; — "fusionless as a docken!" — "No gibes 

 regarding the Docken," promptly chimed in Bang, "it is a highly 

 respectable vegetable, let me tell you, and useful on occasion, which 

 is more." — And it serves to point Allan Ramsay's humour : 



" She fand her lad was not in trim. 

 And be this same good token. 

 That ilka member, lith and Um, 

 Was souple like a iTflScn, 



'Bout him that day."— Poems, i. p. 280. 



" If a person be severely stung with a nettle, it is customary to collect 

 a few dock leaves, to spit on them, and then to rub the part affected, 

 repeating the incantation '{-n JDocfecn, out fictile,' till the violent 

 smarting and inflammation subside." Brockett's Glossary, p. 98 ; 

 and vol. i. p. 136 of the 3rd. edit. 1846: Athenaeum, Sept. 12, 

 1846, p. 932 : Notes and Queries, iii. p. 133 ; and pp. 20.5, 368, 

 and 463. — " Monks for their insolency were driven out of their seats, 

 and secular clerks brought into their room. Thus was it often, * in 

 dock, out nettle,' as they could strengthen their parties." Fuller. 

 Ch. Hist. i. p. 210. 



Children call the seeded plant Cit!S|)l)^CotD£i, and they milk it by 

 drawing the stalks through the fingers. The process of cheese-making 

 is also gone carefully into, though the result is nearly equal to the 

 absurdity of "winning three weights o' nsething." The practice, 

 however, serves the purpose of checking, in some measure, the spread 

 of a pernicious weed. 



497. R. PALUSTRis. Babington in Bot. Gazette, i. 296. — Very 

 rare. N. On the margin of Pawston lough. Rev. J. Baird. 



498. R. ACETOSA. ^ouivSocfem^: ^owroffeiS. Old grassy banks 

 and pastures, common. July. — The leaves are eaten by children. 

 They are not disagreeably acid. 



499. R. ACETOSELLA. ^j^ccp'^^^ovrtl. Barren cultivated fields, 

 and on heaths, &c., very common. June, July. 



28. Daphne laureola. Spurge-Laurel. — B. Naturalized on the 

 banks of the Eye above Netherbyres, Rev. A. Baird. Banks of the 



41. Rumex maritimus. — In 1832, Dr. R. Dunlop found this species plen- 

 tiful on the shore behind Berwick pier, introduced with ballast, and it has 

 now disappeared. 



