Arrach, or Stinking Arrach.
Atriplex olida.
A SMALL wild plant that grows about farm-yards, and in waste grounds. The stalks are a foot long, but weak; they seldom stand upright; they are striated, and of a pale green. The leaves are small, short, and rounded, of a bluish green colour, and of the breadth of a shilling or less. The flowers are inconsiderable, and the seeds small, but they stand in clusters at the tops of the branches, and have a greenish white appearance. The whole plant is covered with a sort of moist dust in large particles, and has a most unpleasant smell. It is to be used fresh gathered, for it loses its virtue in drying. A syrup may be made of a pint of its juice and two pounds of sugar, and will keep all the year. The leaves also may be beat into a conserve, with three times their weight of sugar. In any of these forms it is an excellent medicine in all hysteric complaints. It cures fits, and promotes the menses, and the necessary evacuations after delivery.
There is another kind of arrach also mentioned by medical writers, and called garden arrach (Atriplex hortensis -Henriette); it is an annual raised from seed, for the use of the kitchen. It grows to a yard high, and the leaves are broad: those which grow from the root have a little leaf also on each side of the base. They are covered with a wet dust like the other kind. These leaves are cooling and softening; they are good in clysters, but they are less used, and less valuable than the other.
