SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 49 



(Eumex maritimus) has flowers of a bright orange 

 colour, in crowded whorls, on an angular furrowed 

 stem, about one or two feet in height, and long 

 narrow leaves. It is well named, for the whole 

 plant, in process of time, becomes of a golden hue. 

 The docks generally are well known to those at 

 all familiar with flowers, and this has much simi- 

 larity to the other species. They have little beauty 

 to recommend them to notice, and cultivators of 

 land well know the trouble given by the dock 

 plants. Some of them, however, have very large 

 and handsome leaves, which the artist welcomes as a 

 suitable ornament to the foregrounds of his picture. 

 This family of plants produces an immense number 

 of seeds, and ripens them so rapidly, that were it 

 not, that being heavy, they are less easily dispersed 

 than others, and will not, like the thistle-down, 

 float far away on the summer air, the land would be 

 overrun with docks. Another circumstance which 

 renders them difficult of extirpation from the soil 

 is, that unless the root is completely extracted, 

 little has been done ; for a very small remaining 

 portion will generate buds, and send shoots to the 

 surface. In olden times, however, docks had their 

 repute as medicine ; and the Alpine dock, a rare 

 British species, though common in France, was called 

 monk's rhubarb, from its frequent use in the mo- 

 nasteries instead of the oriental plant. Other 

 species have been used as external remedies, and 

 some cultivated as spinach. Our common Eed- 

 veined dock (Eumex Sanguineus), with its curled 

 leaves and red veins, is said to be a good vegetable 

 when boiled. Children know it well ; for the leaves 

 of this, and other species common by the road side, 

 are often placed on the hand smarting from the 



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