64 



THE INDIA VA WfiED BOOK. 



confused with the yellow wood sorrel, often called " sheep-sorrel " 

 {Oxalis stricta L.), which has clover-like leaves and belongs to a 

 wholly different family. Remedies: use of lime or other fertilizers 

 which will enable other plants, as clover or grasses, to grow and 

 crowd out the sorrel; fertilizing and reseeding worn-out pastures 

 and meadows with clean seed. 



17. Rumex CBISPUS L. Curled Dock. Sour Dock. Yellow Dock. (P. I. 1.) 

 Stem rather slender, erect, furrowed, simple or branched above, 1-4 

 feet high, springing from a long yellow spindle-shaped root ; root-leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, heart-shaped or obtuse at base* long-stalked and With 

 wavy-curled margins; those of stem short-stalked and smaller. Flowers 

 drooping, borne in whorls on a long, leafless wand-like raceme ; calyx dark 

 green, the inner sepals large, heart-shaped, each with a tubercle on the 

 back. Seeds brown, triangular, smooth, shining, 1/12 inch long. 



Common along roadsides, fence-rows, in barnyards, dooryards 

 and waste places generally. May-Sept. The root-leaves when 

 young are often used for "greens" but the plant is an eyesore and 

 a troublesome weed, difficult to eradicate on account of its long 

 stout roots. Remedies: hand pulling, deep cutting or grubbing 

 before the seed ripens; mowing several times during the season. 



In England it is common and is referred to by Shakespeare in 

 the lines: 



"Nothing teems 

 But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs." 



The phrase "in dock, out nettle" is used as an incantation in 

 Northern England. If a person is stung with a nettle the affected 

 part is rubbed with a dock leaf, the phrase being several times re- 

 peated. The same words are there also much used to denote in- 

 constancy or sudden change, whence the lines : 



"Uncertaine, certaine, never loves to settle, 

 Rut hero, there, everywhere, in dock, out nettle.'' 



The roots of this and the next species, when collected in late sum- 

 mer or autumn, washed, split lengthwise and carefully dried, are 

 used for purifying the blood and as a remedy in skin diseases. 

 The price ranges from 2 to S cents a pound. 



IS. Rumex obtusifouus L. Bitter Dock. Broad-leaved Dock. (P. I. 2.) 

 liesembles the preceding but has the lower leaves broader, ovate, more 

 heart-shaped at base and the inner sepals with straight spine-tipped teeth 

 <»n the margins and only one of thoin with an oblong tubercle on back. 

 Seed slightly larger, darker and with a longer beak. (Fig. 31.) 



