POLYGONUM BISTORTA.— GREAT BISTORT, OR SNAKE WEED. 
Class VIII. OCTANDRIA.— Order III. TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, POLYGONS,®.— THE BACK-WHEAT TRIBE. 
Fig. («) represents a perfect flower magnified ; (S) the germen and styles. 
Bistort is an indigenous perennial plant, growing abundantly in many parts of Britain, particularly in the 
northern counties, where it frequently proves a very troublesome weed. We found it in large patches in 
the meadows at Battersea, and also on the north side of Bishop’s Wood near Hampstead, where it is said 
to have grown for more than a half a century. It flowers in May and June. 
The root is creeping, woody, and generally more or less bent and crooked; it is about the thickness of 
a finger, surrounded with slender fibres, of a brownish black color on the outside, and reddish within. The 
stem is solitary, simple, erect, about a foot or eighteen inches in height, round, swelling at the joints, 
striated and smooth. The leaves are entire, ovate, smooth, somewhat flexuose, of a bright green colour, 
and glaucous beneath; the radical ones are somewhat cordate, pointed, and stand upon long winged, or 
rather decurrent footstalks ; those of the stem are almost sessile, amplexicaule, having tubular, sheathing 
foot-stalks, each furnished with membranous stipulee or ochrese. The flowers terminate the stem in a close 
cylindrical spike, about two inches in length ; each of them stands single on very short slender stalks, with 
membranous, notched, brown bracteas at the base. The calyx is generally rose-coloured, and deeply 
divided into five obtuse segments; the stamens are eight, tapering, longer than the calyx, and supporting- 
purple anthers; the germen is triangular, bearing three distinct styles, with small obtuse stigmas. The 
nuts are triangular, black, and shining, each containing a single seed. 
According to Professor Alston, the name of this plant, Bistorte, quasi bis torta, twice twisted or 
wreathed, is of modern date; for it was formerly termed Serpentaria, Colubrina, and Dracunculus, Hoffman 
remarking, “ Radix est serpentis modo intorta.” The generic name Polygonum, is adopted from Diosco- 
rides, whose icoXvyovov ap'pvji> } or male polygonum, is regarded as our P. aviculare, or common knot-grass. 
Qualities. — The root of Bistort, the part used in medicine, is inodorous ; but to the taste very as- 
tringent. It gives out its virtues to water, and “turns a solution of green vitriol to ink.” 
P. Bistorta is one of the more powerful vegetable astringents ; its root contains tannin and gallic acid 
in abundance, so that it is not only very useful in cases of diarrhoea and other fluxes, but might also be employed 
in the tanning of leather, being equivalent it is said to double the quantity of oak-bark. The roots abound 
in fecula, which, when the tan is separated, may be used as food ; bread is made of it, as well as of P. Sibi- 
ricum, in Russia. Scheele discovered oxalic acid in this plant. Its seeds are commonly fed upon by birds, 
and do well to fatten poultry. The young shoots of bistort, called ‘ Easter-giant/ were formerly eaten in 
the north of England in the provincial ‘herb-puddings;’ and in the neighbourhood of Manchester they are 
still brought to table as greens, under the name of Patience Dock. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Bistort is really a very powerful astringent, and appears to be 
neglected merely because it grows in almost every meadow. The powdered root, in doses of a drachm, will 
be found useful in hcemorrhage, diarrhoea, and chronic dysentery ; and, combined with bitters, has been 
recommended for the cure of intermittent fever, by Dr. Cullen. By the following quotation from Gerarde 
it will be seen, that its virtues were much better appreciated in former times: he says, “The iuyce of Bis- 
tort, put into the nose, preuaileth much againste the disease callen Polypus The root boyled in 
wine, and drunke, stayeth vomiting, and healeth the inflammation and sorenesses of the mouth and throat ; 
it likewites fastneth loose teeth, being holden in the mouthe for a certain space, and at sundry times.” 
