Dates of a second quality are brought from Tunis, being intermixed with fragments of stalk and branch; whilst the inferior sorts come in the form of a cake, or paste (_adjoue!_), being pressed into baskets. In this shape they were tolerably common with us in Tudor times, and were then used for medicinal purposes. Strutt mentions a grocer's bill delivered in 1581, in which occurs the item of six pounds of dates supplied at a funeral for two shillings; and we read that in 1821 the best kind of dates cost five shillings a pound.

If taken as a portable refection by jurymen and others who may be kept from their customary food Dates will prevent exhaustion, and will serve to keep active the energies of mind and body. The fruit should be selected when large and soft, being moist, and of a reddish yellow colour outside, and not much wrinkled, whilst having within a white membrane between the flesh and the stone.

Beads for rosaries are made in Barbary from Date stones turned in a lathe; or when soaked in water for a couple of days the stones may be given to cattle as a nutritious food, being first ground in a mill. The fodder being astringent will serve by its tannin, which is abundant, to cure or prevent looseness.

In a clever parody on Bret Harte's "Heathen Chinee," an undergraduate is detected in having primed himself before examination thus:--

"Inscribed on his cuffs were the Furies, and Fates, With a delicate map of the Dorian States: Whilst they found in his palms, which were hollow, What are common in Palms--namely, Dates."

[155] Again, a conserve is prepared by the Egyptians from unripe Dates whole with sugar. The soft stones are edible: and this jam, though tasteless, is very nourishing. The Arabs say that Adam when driven out of Paradise took with him three things--the Date, chief of all fruits, Myrtle, and an ear of Wheat.

Another Palm--the _Sagus_, or, _Cycus revolute_,--which grows naturally in j.a.pan and the East Indian Islands, being also cultivated in English hot-houses, yields by its gummy pith our highly nutritious sago. This when cooked is one of the best and most sustaining foods for children and infirm old persons. The Indians reserve their finest sago for the aged and afflicted. A fecula is washed from the abundant pith, which is chemically a starch, very demulcent, and more digestible than that of rice. It never ferments in the stomach, and is very suitable for hectic persons. By the Arabs the pith of the Date-bearing Palm is eaten in like manner. The simple wholesome virtues of this domestic substance have been told of from childhood in the well-known nursery rhyme, which has been playfully rendered into Latin and French:--

"There was an old man of Iago Whom they kept upon nothing but sago; Oh! how he did jump when the doctor said plump: 'To a roast leg of mutton you may go.'"

"Jamdudum senior quidam de rure Tobagus Invito mad das carpserat ore dapes; Sed medicus tandem non injucunda locutus: 'a.s.soe' dixit 'oves sunt tibi coena, senex.'"

"J'ai entendu parler d'un veillard de Tobag Qui ne mangea longtemps que du ris et du sague; Mais enfin le medecin lui dit ces mots: 'Allez vous en, mon ami, au gigot.'"

[156] DILL.

Cordial waters distilled from the fragrant herb called Dill are, as every mother and monthly nurse well know, a sovereign remedy for wind in the infant; whilst they serve equally well to correct flatulence in the grown up "gourmet." This highly scented plant (_Anethum graveolens_) is of Asiatic origin, growing wild also in some parts of England, and commonly cultivated in our gardens for kitchen or medicinal uses.

It "hath a little stalk of a cubit high, round, and joyned, whereupon do grow leaves very finely cut, like to those of Fennel, but much smaller." The herb is of the umbelliferous order, and its fruit chemically furnishes "anethol," a volatile empyreumatic oil similar to that contained in the Anise, and Caraway. Virgil speaks of the Dill in his _Second Eclogue _as the _bene olens anethum_, "a pleasant and fragrant plant." Its seeds were formerly directed to be used by the _Pharmacopoeias_ of London and Edinburgh. Forestus extols them for allaying sickness and hiccough. Gerard says: "Dill stayeth the yeox, or hicquet, as Dioscorides has taught."

The name _Anethum _was a radical Greek term (_aitho_--to burn), and the herb is still called Anet in some of our country districts. The pungent essential oil which it yields consists of a hydrocarbon, "carvene," together with an oxygenated oil; It is a "gallant expeller of the wind, and provoker of the terms." "Limbs that are swollen and cold if rubbed with the oil of Dill are much eased; if not cured thereby."

A dose of the essential oil if given for flatulent indigestion should be from two to four drops, on sugar, or with a tablespoonful of milk. Of the distilled water sweetened, one or two teaspoonfuls may be given to an infant.

[157] The name Dill is derived from the Saxon verb _dilla_, to lull, because of its tranquillizing properties, and its causing children to sleep. This word occurs in the vocabulary of Oelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, tenth century. Dioscorides gave the oil got from the flowers for rheumatic pains, and sciatica; also a carminative water distilled from the fruit, for increasing the milk of wet nurses, and for appeasing the windy belly-aches of babies.

He teaches that a teaspoonful of the bruised seeds if boiled in water and taken hot with bread soaked therein, wonderfully helps such as are languishing from hardened excrements, even though they may have vomited up their faeces.

The plant is largely grown in the East Indies, where is known as _Soyah_. Its fruit and leaves are used for flavouring pickles, and its water is given to parturient women.

Drayton speaks of the Dill as a magic ingredient in Love potions; and the weird gipsy, Meg Merrilies, crooned a cradle song at the birth of Harry Bertram in it was said:--

"Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, _Dill_, Hinder witches of their will."

DOCK.

The term Dock is botanically a noun of mult.i.tude, meaning originally a bundle of hemp, and corresponding to a similar word signifying a flock. It became in early times applied to a wide-spread tribe of broad-leaved wayside weeds. They all belong to the botanical order of _Polygonaceoe_, or "many kneed" plants, because, like the wife of Yankee Doodle, famous in song, they are "double-jointed;"

though he, poor man! expecting to find Mistress Doodle doubly active in her household [158] duties, was, as the rhyme says, "disappointed." The name "Dock" was first applied to the _Arctium Lappa_, or Bur-dock, so called because of its seed-vessels becoming frequently entangled by their small hooked spines in the wool of sheep pa.s.sing along by the hedge-rows. Then the t.i.tle got to include other broad-leaved herbs, all of the Sorrel kind, and used in pottage, or in medicine.

Of the Docks which are here recognized, some are cultivated, such as Garden Rhubarb, and the Monk's Rhubarb, or herb Patience, an excellent pot herb; whilst others grow wild in meadows, and by river sides, such as the round-leafed Dock (_Rumex obtusifolius_), the sharp-pointed Dock (_Rumex acutus_), the sour Dock (_Rumex acetosus_), the great water Dock (_Rumex hydrolapathum_), and the b.l.o.o.d.y-veined Dock (_Rumex sanguineus_).

All these resemble our garden rhubarb more or less in their general characteristics, and in possessing much tannin. Most of them chemically furnish "rumicin," or crysophanic acid, which is highly useful in several chronic diseases of the skin among scrofulous patients. The generic name of several Docks is _rumex_, from the Hebrew _rumach_, a "spear"; others arc called _lapathum_, from the Greek verb _lapazein_, to cleanse, because they act medicinally as purgatives.

The common wayside Dock (_Rumex obtusifolius_) is the most ordinary of all the Docks, being large and spreading, and so coa.r.s.e that cattle refuse to eat it. The leaves are often applied as a rustic remedy to burns and scalds, and are used for dressing blisters.

Likewise a popular cure for nettle stings is to rub them with a Dock leaf, saying at the same time:--

"Out nettle: in Dock; Dock shall have a new smock."

[159] or:

"Nettle out: Dock in; Dock remove the nettle sting."

A tea made from the root was formerly given for the cure of boils, and the plant is frequently called b.u.t.terdock, because its leaves are put into use for wrapping up b.u.t.ter. This Dock will not thrive in poor worthless soil; but its broad foliage serves to lodge the destructive turnip fly. The root when dried maybe added to tooth powder.

It was under the broad leaf of a roadside Dock that Hop o' My Thumb, famous in nursery lore, sought refuge from a storm, and was unfortunately swallowed whilst still beneath the leaf by a pa.s.sing hungry cow.

The herb Patience, or Monk's Rhubarb (_Rumex alpinus_), a Griselda among herbs, may be given with admirable effect in pottage, as a domestic aperient, "loosening the belly, helping the jaundice, and dispersing the tympany." This grows wild in some parts, by roadsides, and near cottages, but is not common except as a cultivated herb ill the kitchen-garden, known as "Patience-dock."

It is a remarkable fact that the toughest flesh-meat, if boiled with the herb, or with other kindred docks, will become quite tender.

The name Patience, or Pa.s.sions, was probably from the Italian _Lapazio_, a corruption of _Lapathum_, which was mistaken for _la pa.s.sio_, the pa.s.sion of Christ.

Our _Garden Rhubarb_ is a true Dock, and belongs to the "many-kneed,"

buckwheat order of plants. Its brilliant colouring is due to varying states of its natural pigment (_chlorophyll_), in combination with oxygen. For culinary purposes the stalk, or petiole of the broad leaf, is used. Its chief nutrient property is glucose, which is identical with grape-sugar. The agreeable taste and odour of the [160] plant are not brought out until the leaf stalks are cooked. It came originally from the Volga, and has been grown in this country since 1573. The sour taste of the stalks is due to oxalic acid, or rather to the acid oxalate of potash. This combines with the lime elaborated in the system of a gouty person (having an "oxalic acid" disposition), and makes insoluble and injurious products which have to be thrown off by the kidneys as oxalate crystals, with much attendant irritation of the general system. Sorrel (_Rumex acetosus_) acts with such a person in just the same way, because of the acid oxalate of potash which it contains.

Garden Rhubarb also possesses alb.u.men, gum, and mineral matters, with a small quant.i.ty of some volatile essence. The proportion of nutritive substance to the water and vegetable fibre is very small. As an article of food it is objectionable for gouty persons liable to the pa.s.sage of highly coloured urine, which deposits lithates and urates as crystals after it has cooled; and this especially holds good if hard water, which contains lime, is drunk at the same time.

The round-leaved Dock, and the sharp-pointed Dock, together with the b.l.o.o.d.y-veined Dock (which is very conspicuous because of its veins and petioles abounding in a blood-coloured juice), make respectively with their astringent roots a useful infusion against bleedings and fluxes; also with their leaves a decoction curative of several chronic skin diseases.

The _Rumex acetosus_ (Sour Dock, or Sorrel), though likely to disagree with gouty persons, nevertheless supplies its leaves as the chief const.i.tuent of the _Soupe aux herbes_, which a French lady will order for herself after a long and tiring journey. Its t.i.tle is derived as some think, from struma, because curative [161]

thereof. This Dock further bears the names of Sour sabs, Sour grabs, Soursuds, Soursauce, Cuckoo sorrow, and Greensauce.

Because of their acidity the leaves make a capital dressing with stewed lamb, veal, or sweetbread. Country people beat the herb to a mash, and take it mixed with vinegar and sugar as a green sauce with cold meat. When boiled by itself without water it serves as an excellent accompaniment to roast goose or pork instead of apple sauce. The root of Sorrel when dried has the singular property of imparting a fine red colour to boiling water, and it is therefore used by the French for making barley water look like red wine when they wish to avoid giving anything of a vinous character to the sick. In Ireland Sorrel leaves are eaten with fish, and with other alkalescent foods. Because corrective of scrofulous deposits, Sorrel is specially beneficial towards the cure of scurvy. Applied externally the bruised leaves will purify foul ulcers. Says John Evelyn in his noted _Acetaria _(1720), "Sorrel sharpens the appet.i.te, a.s.suages heat, cools the liver and strengthens the heart; it is an antis...o...b..tic, resisting putrefaction, and in the making of sallets imparts a grateful quickness to the rest as supplying the want of oranges and lemons. Together with salt it gives both the name and the relish to sallets from the sapidity which renders not plants and herbs only, but men themselves, and their conversations pleasant and agreeable. But of this enough, and perhaps too much!

lest while I write of salts and sallets I appear myself insipid."

The Wood Sorrel (_Oxalis acetosella_) is a distinct plant from the Dock Sorrel, and is not one of the _Polygonaceoe_, but a geranium, having a triple leaf which is often employed to symbolise the Trinity. Painters of old [162] placed it in the foreground of their pictures when representing the crucifixion. The leaves are sharply acid through oxalate of potash, commonly called "Salts of Lemon," which is quite a misleading name in its apparent innocence as applied to so strong a poison. The petals are bluish coloured, veined with purple. Formerly, on account of its grateful acidity, a conserve was ordered by the London College to be made from the leaves and petals of Wood Sorrel, with sugar and orange peel, and it was called _Conserva lujuoe_.

The Burdock (_Arctium lappa_) grows very commonly in our waste places, with wavy leaves, and round heads of purple flowers, and hooked scales. From the seeds a medicinal tincture (H.) is made, and a fluid extract, of which from ten to thirty drops, given three times a day, with two tablespoonfuls of cold water, will materially benefit certain chronic skin diseases (such as psoriasis), if taken steadily for several weeks, or months. Dr.

Reiter of Pittsburg, U.S.A., says the Burdock feed has proved in his hands almost a specific for psoriasis and for obstinate syphilis.

The tincture is of special curative value for treating that depressed state of the general health which is a.s.sociated with milky phosphates in the urine, and much nervous debility. Eight or ten drops of the reduced tincture should be given in water three times a day.

The root in decoction is an excellent remedy for other skin diseases of the scaly, itching, vesicular, pimply and ulcerative characters. Many persons think it superior to Sarsaparilla. The burs of this Dock are sometimes called "c.o.c.kleb.u.t.tons," or "Cuckleb.u.t.tons," and "Beggarsb.u.t.tons." Its Anglo-Saxon name was "Fox's clote."

Boys throw them into the air at dusk to catch bats, which dart at the Bur in mistake for a moth or fly; [163] then becoming entangled with the th.o.r.n.y spines they fall helplessly to the ground.

Of the botanical names, _Arctium_ derived from _arktos_, a bear, in allusion to the roughness of the burs; and _Lappa_ is from _labein_, to seize. Other appellations of the herb are Clot-bur (from sticking to clouts, or clothes), c.l.i.the, Hurbur, and Hardock.

The leaves when applied externally are highly resolvent for tumours, bruises, and gouty swellings. In the _Philadelphia Recorder_ for January, 1893, a striking case is given of a fallen womb cured after twenty years' duration by a decoction of Burdock roots. The liquid extract acts as an admirable remedy in some forms (strumous) of longstanding indigestion. The roots contain starch; and the ashes of the plant burnt when green yield carbonate of potash abundantly, with nitre, and inulin.

The Yellow Curled Dock (_Rumex crispus_), so called because its leaves are crisped at their edges, grows freely in our roadside ditches, and waste places, as a common plant; and a medicinal tincture which is very useful (H.) is made from it before it flowers.

This is of particular service for giving relief to an irritable tickling cough of the upper air-tubes, and the throat, when these pa.s.sages are rough and sore, and sensitive to the cold atmosphere, with a dry cough occurring in paroxysms. It is likewise excellent for dispelling any obstinate itching of the skin, in which respect it was singularly beneficial against the contagious army-itch which prevailed during the last American war. It acts like Sarsaparilla chiefly, for curing scrofulous skin affections and glandular swellings. To be applied externally an ointment may be made by boiling the root in vinegar until the fibre is softened, and by then mixing the pulp with lard (to which some sulphur is [164] added at times). In all such cases of a scrofulous sort from five to ten drops of the tincture should be given two or three times a day with a spoonful of cold water.

Rumicin is the active principle of the Yellow Curled Dock; and from the root, containing chrysarobin, a dried extract is prepared officinally, of which from one to four grains may be given for a dose in a pill. This is useful for relieving a congested liver, as well as for scrofulous skin diseases.

"Huds," or the great Water Dock (_Rumex hydrolapathum_) is of frequent growth on our river banks, bearing numerous green flowers in leafless whorls, and being identical with the famous _Herba Britannica_ of Pliny. This name does not denote British origin, but is derived from three Teuton words, _brit_, to tighten: _tan_, a tooth; and _ica_, loose; thus expressing its power of bracing up loose teeth and spongy gums. Swedish ladies employ the powdered root as a dentifrice; and gargles prepared therefrom are excellent for sore throat and relaxed uvula. The fresh root must be used, as it quickly turns yellow and brown in the air. The green leaves make a capital application for ulcers of the legs. They possess considerable acidity, and are laxative. Horace was aware of this fact, as we learn by his _Sermonum, Libr_. ii., _Satir_ 4:--