RU M 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



RUM 



499 



if divided below the crown, sends forth sapling shoots from 

 the part left in the ground, and this from almost any depth, 

 provided it have head-room and the soil be loose. The upper 

 part too, if cut a few inches deep, will survive the amputa- 

 tion. Even when inverted by the plough, it will recoil, and 

 find its way to the surface again. Hence land much infested 

 with Docks should be gone over with the drawing or docking 

 iron some time before the plough be put to it, that the tops 

 may be removed, and the rootlets left in the ground may have 

 time to rot before the land be ploughed. With this precau- 

 tion, and with a person to follow the plough with a spadelet, 

 to grub up the bottoms, and disengage the tops of such as 

 may have escaped the previous weeding, the roots may be 

 extirpated with great certainty. The seeds are to be de- 

 stroyed by the plough, the harrow, and the roller ; but the 

 intervals between the ploughings should be short, for if they 

 once establish themselves in the soil, except in favourable 

 seasons, it is impossible to extirpate them. These weeds are 

 sometimes sown upon the land with corn, and frequently 

 with Clover. From corn and pulse the seed may be separated 

 by the screen, and still more effectually by the sieve; but from 

 Clover seed, the seed of Docks cannot easily be separated, 

 being nearly of the same size and weight. Singular caution 

 should therefore be had in purchasing Clover seed; and the 

 growers of Clover should be especially assiduous in clearing 

 their seed Clover from this pernicious weed. To suffer a 

 Dock which has ripened its seed to be thrushed with seed 

 Clovir, is an unpardonable neglect, almost amounting to an 

 actual crime. 



2. Rumex Sanguinea; Bloody-veined Dock, or Bloodwort. 

 Flowers hermaphrodite ; valves quite entire, oblong, one 

 chiefly graniferous; leaves cordate, lanceolate. Root fusi- 

 form ; stem upright, branched, angular, leafy, smooth, three 

 or four feet high; florets small, in long clusters of very nume- 

 rous tufts of whorls, their petals oblong and obtuse, one of 

 them bearing a very large, globular, red grain. The veins 

 and petioles of the leaf abound in a blood-coloured juice. 

 The variety called the Green-veined Dock, which is so com<- 

 mon in shady places, only differs in the colour of the veins. 

 Hill says, that the roots of this plant are of an astringent 

 nature, and may be given either in decoction or powder, 

 against the bloody and other fluxes; also in spitting of blood, 

 immoderate menses, aud fluor albus. This plant is said to 

 be a native of Virginia. It was first found in England in the 

 woody places about Hampstead, and has been since observed 

 about Maidstone; on Headingtpn Hill near Oxford; at 

 Lowestoft in Suffolk ; about Bristol ; and near Harefield in 

 Middlesex. 



3. Rumex Spathulatus ; Spatula-leaved Dock. Leaves 

 obovate, obtuse; valves graniferous. Native of the Cape. 



4. Rumex Vcrticillatus ; W/iorl-Jlowcred Dock. Flowers 

 hermaphrodite; valves quite entire, all graniferous; leaves 

 lanceolate; sheathes cylindrical. -Native of Virginia. 



5. Rumex Britannica ; Virginian Water-Dock, Powers her- 

 maphrodite; valves quite entiie, all graniferous; leaves lan- 

 ceolate; sheaths obsolete. The root is blacker yellow on the 

 outside, and saffron-coloured within. Native of Virginia. 



6. Rumex Crispus ; Curled Dock. Flowers hermaphrodite; 

 valves ovate, entire, all graniferous; leaves lanceolate, waved, 

 acute. Root fusiform, yellow; stem two or three feet high. 

 angular, grooved, smoothish. This is the pest of the Clover- 

 "elds in Norfolk, in some of which it has been known to con- 



half the crop. It is distinguished by its yellow root, 

 ived leaves, and large seed-coverings. The fresh roots. 

 d, and made into an ointment or a decoction, cure the 



The seeds, have also beea successfully given in dysen- 

 VOL. ii. 107. 



tery. Native of Europe, Siberia, Cochin-china ; found in 

 every soil and situation. See the first species. 



7. Rumex Persicarioides; Persicaria-leaved Dock. Flowers 

 hermaphrodite; valves toothed, awl-shaped at the tip, all 

 granifurous; leaves lanceolate, wavy. Native of Virginia. 



8. Rumex Jigypticus ; Egyptian Dock. Flowers her- 

 maphrodite ; valves trifid, setaceous, one only graniferous ; 

 leaves oblong. Native of Egypt. 



9. Rumex Dentalus; Deuiated Dock. Flowers hermaph- 

 rodite; valves toothed, lanceolate at the tip, all graniferous; 

 leaves lanceolate. Native of Egypt. 



10. Rumex Acutus; Sharp-leaved Dock. Flowers her- 

 maphrodite ; valves oblong, somewhat toothed, all grani- 

 ferous; leaves cordate-oblong, acuminate; racemes leafy. 

 Root perennial ; stem angular, grooved, smooth, rather flex- 

 uose. Native of Europe, in woods, hedges, by road-sides, 

 in watery places and marshes. There is a variety which is 

 more twisted, the whorls are more frequent and denser, and 

 the leaflets under the whorls shorter. It is common in moist 

 places. See the first species. 



11. Rumex Obtusifolius ; Blunt-leaved Dock. Flowers 

 hermaphrodite; valves toothed, one chiefly graniferous; root- 

 leaves cordate, blunt; stem somewhat rugged. This is sub- 

 ject to as little variety as any of the species ; its broad root- 

 leaves readily distinguish it, and these, though they may 

 differ somewhat in size, vary little in shape; in general the 

 younger the plant, the more obtuse are its radical leaves. 

 Of all the English Docks, this is one of the most common; 

 and may be considered as a very pernicious weed, being very 

 large and spreading, and refused by cattle in general. The 

 leaves were formerly much used for wrapping up butter, 

 from which it obtained the name of Butler Dock. Native 

 of Europe, in all sorts of cultivated ground ; among rubbish 

 in farm-yards and courts; by the side of ditches and paths : 

 flowering in July and August. See the first species. 



12. Rumex Pulcher; Fiddle Dock. Flowers hermaphro- 

 dite ; valves many-toothed, one chiefly graniferous ; root- 

 leaves viol-shaped; stem smooth, divaricate. The root- 

 leaves, so remarkably contracted in one part as to resemble 

 a fiddle; the widely spreading stems and branches; and tlie 

 sharp numerous teeth of the strongly reticulated valves, clearly 

 mark this species. Native of Italy. 



13. Rumex Maritimus; Golden Dock. Flowers hermaph- 

 rodite ; valves, deltoid, setaceous-toothed, graniferous ; leaves 

 linear; whorls clustered. Root perennial, consisting of 

 twisted fibres as in winter plants.- Native of the several part* 

 of Europe, in marshes, especially on the sea-coast. 



14. Rumex Palustris ; Yellow Marsh-Dock. Flowers 

 hermaphrodite; valves lanceolate, graniferous, toothed at the 

 base ; leaves linear-lanceolate ; whorls distant. Root taper- 

 ing, reddish brown on the outside, bright red within. The 

 most striking character of this plant, when iu flower or seed, 

 is the uumberand narrowness of the leaves on its branches ; 

 when viewed more closely, we are struck with the number 

 and length of the teeth on the edges of the seedrvalvt'9, which 

 valves are frequently, though not always, of a yellowish 

 colour, and furnished with remarkably large and long grains: 

 if any doubt remain respecting the species, the root, on being 

 cut across, exhibits a beautiful red colour equal to any car- 

 mine. It flowers in July, August, and September, and is one 

 of the species least noxious to the farmer. Its natural situa- 

 tion is a moist one, as on the edges of wet ditches and rivulets; 

 but it is not unfrequent in pastures or drier ground. In the 

 former it will grow to the height of three or four feet; having 

 root-leaves a foot long, and three inches broad; in the latter it 

 seldom grows more than a foot high, with root-leaves about 



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