18 



The difference between flower and fruit is barety distinguishable when 

 seen from a little distance so long as the fruit is immature, both being 

 green, but later in the season, as the fruit ripens, the spikes take on a 

 rusty-brown color. (Fig. 7.) 



Yellow-rooted. Water Dock. 

 Rumex britannica L. 



Habitat and range. — As the common name indicates, this plant fre- 

 quents swampy and wet places and banks of streams. It is found from 



Canada to New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania, and west- 

 ward to Minnesota, Illi- 

 nois, and Iowa. 



Description. — The yel- 

 low-rooted water dock is a 

 taller plant than either of 

 the docks previously men- 

 tioned, its stout stem some- 

 times reaching a height of 

 6 feet. The leaves at the 

 base of the plant are borne 

 on long stalks, and are 

 from 1 to 2 feet in length, 

 but, as with the other two 

 species, the leaves toward 

 the top of the plant are 

 shorter, as are also the 

 stalks supporting them. 

 The densely flowered clus- 

 ters are not as leafy as in 

 the preceding species men- 

 tioned. The plant flowers 



Fig. 8 -Yellow duck root. fl"Om July to August. 



Dock Roots. 



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

 is very similar in all of these species of dock (tigs. 7 and 8), usually 

 from 8 to 12 inches long, fleshy, often somewhat branched, the out- 

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

 It possesses but a very faint odor and a bitter, astringent taste. The 

 roots should be collected in late summer or autumn after the fruiting 

 tops have ripened, then washed, split lengthwise into halves or quar- 

 ter-, and carefully dried, 

 iss 



