556 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



throughout the United States. Other species are also recognized as 

 possessing value in medicine, but those above mentioned are the 

 kinds generally collected. 



The root, which is the part to be collected for medicinal pur- 

 poses, is very similar in all of these species of dock, usually from 8 

 to 12 inches long, fleshy, often somewhat branched, the outside 

 dark reddish brown with a rather thick bark, internally yellowish. 

 The roots should be collected in late summer or autumn. 

 The docks are largely employed for purifying the blood and as a 

 remedy in skin diseases. Rumex or dock roots are imported into 

 this country to the extent of about 125,000 pounds annually. The 

 price ranges from 2 to 8 cents per pound. 



Couch Grass (Agropyron repens). Dog-grass, quick-grass, 

 quack-grass, quitch-grass, scutch-grass, twitch-grass, witch-grass, 

 wheat-grass, Chandler's grass, creeping wheat-grass, devil's-grass, 

 durfa-grass, Durfee-grass, Dutch-grass, Fin's grass, quake-grass, 

 Couch grass is now a most troublesome pest in cultivated ground, 

 causing the farmer a loss of thousands of dollars annually by taking 

 possession of fields, and crowding out valuable crops. The most im- 

 portant part of this grass, not only agriculturally but also phar- 

 maceutically, is its long, tough rhizome or root-stock, creeping 

 along underneath the ground and pushing in every direction. 



One of the best methods of destroying this weed is to plow up 

 the roots and burn them. They need not be burned, however, but 

 may be saved and prepared for the drug market. In the drug trade 

 this plant is generally known as dog grass or triticum. As found 

 in the stores, it is in the form of small, angular pieces, about one- 

 eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, straw colored, shining, and 

 hollow. These pieces are odorless but have a somewhat sweetish 

 taste. The fluid extract prepared from dog grass is used in kidney 

 and bladder troubles. Couch grass is almost wholly an imported 

 article, some 250,000 pounds coming into this country annually 

 from Europe. The price is about 3 to 7 cents per pound. 



Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana). Poke, pigeon-berry, gar- 

 get, scoke, pocan, coakum, Virginian poke, ink-berry, red-ink-berry, 

 American nightshade, cancer jalap, redweed. For medicinal pur- 

 poses the berries and roots are employed. Both of these should be 

 collected when the berries are fully mature, which usually occurs 

 about two months after flowering. The clusters of berries should 

 be carefully dried in the shade. They are poisonous, have no odor, 

 a sweetish taste at first, then acrid. It should be gathered in the 

 latter part of the fall, thoroughly cleaned, cut into transverse slices, 

 and carefully dried. 



Both the berries and roots are alterative, act upon the 

 bowels and cause vomiting, and preparations made from mem are 

 used in treating various diseases of the skin and blood, and in cer- 

 tain cases in relieving pain and allaying inflammation. Phyto- 

 lacca or pokeroot brings from 2 to 5 cents per pound, and the dry 

 berries about 5 cents per pound. 



Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea.) Purple foxglove, thimbles, 



