RUSHES. BISTORT. 



63 



obtuse, twice the length of the calyx. Flowers from June to 

 September. 



This plant thrives best on damp poor clays, where water 

 stagnates, and then dries up. It is held as a mark of the 

 sterility of the soil. The roots are sweet like parsnips, and 

 are used as bread. Cows, horses, and swine are said to eat 

 it, and sheep to refuse it. The name would seem to imply 

 that geese are fond of it. 



In all arable lands, weeds must be eradicated by careful 

 fallowing; and on pastures, top-dressing the surface with 

 composts, eating it bare with sheep, and the folding of the 

 animals for the purpose of depositing the excrements, will in 

 most cases remove the weeds of the smaller size. 



27. "Eushes" of various kinds are often found on cold 

 pasture lands. The generic and specific character of the plant, 

 has been already given (page 42). The presence of the rush 

 plant always indicates a superfluous moisture that wants to be 

 removed, and, this object being effected by draining, the 

 plant generally gives way to better herbage, though the 

 extirpation and destruction afterwards will- be much pro- 

 moted and accelerated by top-dressings of ashes and other 

 matters. The plant is not of difficult extirpation. 



28. "Docks," "Rumex" of botany, are weeds mostly 

 found on meadows and pastures of a strong and sourish 

 nature, but sometimes of a very good quality. The generic 

 and specific description has been already given (page 22). If 

 the plants are permitted to ripen the seeds, they leave an 

 immense quantity for future crops ; and that being perennial 

 the evil is very much increased. The plant is refused to be 

 eaten by all sorts of domestic animals ; and they should be 

 rooted up after rain ; and it is useful in some cases to cut 

 through the stalks under the ground, and to repeat the 

 practice as shoots are again thrown up. 



29. " Bistort," or the " Polygonum Bistorta" of botany, 

 is a very frecpient weed on moist meadows. The description 

 of the genus has been already given. It is perennial, and 

 the root is a very strong vegetable astrin^^ent. The raising 

 of the roots is the only effectual mode of eradication. 



