I^ERSICARIA THIBE 109 



bearing distant whorls of greenish flowers from June to September. It is 

 readily distinguished by the fiddle-shaped leaves. 



9. Broad-leaved Dock (I'. ohtudfoUus). — Enlarged sepals egg-shaped 

 or oblong-triangiilar, ])lunt, toothed at the base, one principally tubercled ; 

 lower leaves egg-shaj^ed, and heart-shaped, blunt ; upper ones oblong or 

 lanceolate ; stem roughish ; perennial. This, which is one of our most 

 common Docks, is one of the most troublesome weeds with which the 

 farmer has to contend. It grows in pastures, by way-sides, in yards and 

 neglected gardens, mostly pi'eferring cultivated soils. It may be known by 

 its broad, blunt root-leaves, which are generally curled at the margin, and 

 from July to September it bears rather distant whorls of reddish flowers, of 

 which the lower ones are somewhat leafy. The stem is somewhat rough, 

 and two or three feet in height. It is refused by cattle, but Dr. Withering 

 remarks that it is eaten by fallow-deer with such avidity that it is rare to see 

 a Dock growing in a deer-park. The leaves are often used for wrapping 

 round butter and cream-cheese, hence in some country places the plant has 

 the name of Butter Dock. Most of us have applied it, when pained by the 

 sting of a nettle. Mr. Couch, while remarking on the superstitions of Cornwall, 

 says, "Boys when stung by the nettle have great faith in the antidotal 

 properties of the Dock, and when rubbing it into the part in pain, repeat 

 the words, ' Out nettle, in Dock ; nettle, nettle stung me.' " Nor is the 

 superstition confined to Cornwall, for the author, during childhood, when 

 stung by the nettle in the fields of Kent, was wont to exorcise it in the 

 words, "Out nettle, in Dock." The expressed juice of the honeysuckle 

 leaf is, however, a far more efficacious remedy against the sting either 

 of plant or insect than the Dock-leaf, the sole virtue of which seems to 

 consist in its coolness. It Avas this latter quality which induced our fore- 

 fathers to use it to allay the irritation of a wound. Thus in Browne's 

 Pastorals we find — 



' ' And softly 'gaii it bind 

 With Dock-leaves and a slip ofwillow-rind." 



The root of this Dock is very astringent. It was formerly used by dyers, 

 and when powdered it forms one of the very best of dentifrices. The 

 species sheds a profusion of seeds, and as these ripen rapidly and perfectly, 

 the earth would soon be overrun by the Dock were it not that they are too 

 heavy to be wafted to a distance by the wind. When the plant has 

 established itself, however, it is most difficult of eradication, for almost every 

 seed springs up near the parent plant ; and if but a small portion of the root- 

 stock is left l)y the weeder in the soil, it will generate buds and send them 

 to the surface. Even if the root be cut to pieces by the plough or spade, 

 each little piece pushes up its green leaf in the next spring. The seeds, too, 

 often become mingled with those of the grasses, and when soAvn on good land 

 an abundant crop of Docks comes up in the meadow. It is remarkalile, 

 however, of the Dock, that it never flourishes in poor soils ; and Dr. Keith 

 gives, in his "General View of the Agriculture of Aberdeenshire," an 

 anecdote relating to this peculiarity : — A person who took a small farm in 

 that county, and entered -ipon it at the usual time of AMiitsunday, 



