The Common Reed.
Botanical name:
Arundo.
A tall water plant sufficiently known. The stalks are round, hard, jointed, and six or eight feet high. The leaves are long and broad, but other wise like those of grass, of a pale green colour, and highly ribbed. The flowers are brown and chaffy, and stand in prodigious numbers at the tops of the stalks, in a kind of panicle. The roots are knotty and jointed and spread vastly.
The juice of the fresh roots of reeds promotes the menses powerfully, but not violently. It is an excellent medicine: it works by urine also; and is good against stranguries and the gravel.
