MEDICINAL PART. The root.
    Description. -- This plant has a perennial, long, cylindrical root, about the thickness of a quill, and deep reddish-brown.  It has several herbaceous, brittle stems. The leaves are from four to six in a whorl, lanceolate, mucronate, two or three inches long, and about one-third as wide. Flowers small and yellow.
    History. -- Madder is a native of the Mediterranean and Southern European countries. The drug is chiefly imported from Holland and France. The root is collected in the third year of the plant, when it is freed from its outer covering and dried. It is valued as a dye-stuff for its red and purple.
    Properties and Uses. -- It is sometimes used to promote the menstrual and urinary discharges, but is not in very great favor. Combined in a preparation with other ingredients, it is of some considerable remedial value.
    Dose. -- Thirty grains, three or four times a day. If used frequently, it will color the bones red.