ALTERATIVES. 43 
Dose, a teaspoonful in water three times a day. Like most 
other medicines of this class it is generally compounded in 
mixtures for the blood. 
YELLOW DOCK (Rumex Crispus). 
If there is one plant hated by amateur gardeners, it 
is this dock. Jt comes uninvited, and comes to stay, unless 
very great diligence is used to oust it. While it is much despised 
on this account, yet 1t is a good blood purifier, also a laxative. 
A decoction of the fresh roots, cut or scraped, 2 ounces to the 
pint; a wineglassful 2 to 4 times a day, will prove our 
assertion. Some families, when other vegetables were scarce, 
have tried the leaves as a substitute for cabbage, and found 
a marked benefit from them. They make a good ointment, 
for the itch, with sulphur and lard. A valuable wash is made 
by boiling 3 ounces in a quart of water. After washing the skin 
with healing soap and water, bathe with the dock decoction ; do 
this every night in eruptions of the skin till well. For chronic 
erysiplas, or an inflamed puffiness of the skin, boil an ounce of 
the drycrushed root in a pint of water, strain through a finecloth, 
and take a wineglassful 3 times a day. A lady in this city 
got this recipe from a brother in America, and testifies to its 
efficacy. The great water dock has similar properties. It is 
like the sharp-pointed dock, but much larger. It grows near 
water, and attains a height of about 6 fect, with large round 
roots. 
BURDOCK (Arcrium Lappa). 
This species of the dock is not so common as the others. It 
differs in most respects from them. The leaf is much larger, 
and when full-grown resembles a small tree branching out 
from the stems. Growing from the top of the branches are the 
burrs, which, in shape, resemble prickly balls, the size of a 
walnut ; at first green, then a pinkish brown, and, when ripe, 
grayish. These balls are filled with seeds at the bottom of the 
prickles. This short description, with our illustration of this 
undoubted blood purifier, willenableour readers to identify it, as 
it is found growing in many parts of the colonies. We cultivate 
