52 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[March 1, 1S63. 



THE WOOD-SORREL. 



XF there is one thing more than another which 

 -*- must attract the attention of the lover of 

 Nature, it is the endless variety which is presented 

 to him on every side. No human being could have 

 arranged the wondrous sequence of the seasons, 

 each lasting just long enough for us to see, and 

 admire, and wonder at, and then passing away to 

 give place to another, as beautiful and as charming 

 as itself. Spring, with its fresh green, and its 

 general awakening of bird and beast, insect and 

 flower, makes room for bright and glorious Summer, 

 with its bird music and gay floral train ; then comes 

 Autumn, with a rich mellow glow of golden harvest, 

 followed by Winter, when Nature is as beautiful in 

 sleep as she is when awake, and as she will be again 

 ere many weeks are past. And so 



The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 

 And God fulfils Himself in many ways. 



I can think of nothing artificial which can at all 

 compare with the nature-gardening of our hedges 

 and fields, unless it be some old-fashioned garden of 

 old-fashioned people (such as Henry Kingsley has so 

 delightfully described), planted in those days, upon 

 which we have so much improved, when people had 

 not the opportunity and so could not know the 

 advantage of having their flower-beds filled for 

 four or five months with a painful blaze of scarlet 

 Geraniums and yellow Calceolarias, leaving them 

 empty and desolate for the remainder of the year. 



But I am wandering from the subject of my paper 

 — the Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis acetoselhi), one of the 

 loveliest flowers of Spring, and one which is so 

 common in most districts that few can have failed 

 to observe. I have selected it from the various 

 wild flowers which now present themselves because 

 one or two of the features of interest connected 

 with it arc worthy of especial notice. I need 

 hardly describe it — the threefold emerald-green leaf 

 and the delicate white flower, with its purplish veins, 

 are well known to all who give even a passing glance 

 at our hedgebank blossoms. 



In the first place, our Wood-Sorrel is an excellent 

 weather-glass : both leaves and flowers close before 

 rain ; and the latter expand fully only in the brightest 

 sunshine, drooping at even a passing cloud. But, 

 more remarkable still, if its leaves be roughly 

 handled, they will as it were shrink from the touch, 

 droop, and gradually fold up, not in the same 

 wonderfully instantaneous manner peculiar to the 

 leaves of the Sensitive Plant {Mimosa pudicd), 

 but perceptibly, though slowly. If you gather a 

 plant of Wood-Sorrel and carry it home in your 

 hand, you will soon find that the leaves will close, 

 and the flowers shrivel up and die. Curiously 

 enough, the sensitive property of the leaves is more 

 apparent in some specimens than in others. The 



manner in which the seed is sown by the plant 

 itself is very remarkable. Some years ago, when I 

 had even more to learn than I have now of the 

 wonders of the works of nature, and when I had 

 less opportunity of studying them, a kind friend sent 

 me some roots of Wood-Sorrel. I thought it then, as 

 I think it 'still, one of the loveliest things that I had 

 ever beheld; and watched with wonder its leaves 

 fold and unfold as evening succeeded to morning. 

 Even when the blossoms had disappeared, I cherished 

 the plants ; and one fine morning in July was 

 astonished to find what I believed to be a flower- 

 bud rising among the leaves. Another and another 

 appeared, and grew larger day by day. What 

 surprised me was that they were not white, but 

 green and swollen ; and quite hard to the touch — 

 that is, for a time : for one day, on handling one of 

 the supposed buds, my astonishment may be 

 imagined, when it flewopen at right angles, scattering 

 around a number of white, pearly-looking seeds ! Such 

 is the wonderful provision made for the dissemina- 

 tion of this little plant. It is curious to notice that 

 the leaves of the Wood-Sorrel, when folded up for 

 the night, will not reopen if placed in a room with 

 artificial light; differing in this from the Trefoils 

 and other night-closing plants. Many who are 

 familiar with the beauty of the emerald leaves and 

 pencilled flowers may not have examined the 

 creeping root, on which are hard round knobs or 

 scales, pink or bright red, and somewhat resembling 

 coral. A striking variety of the Wood-Sorrel has 

 been observed in some parts of England which has 

 bright purplish-red blossoms, and contrasts very 

 handsomely with our ordinary form. 



Those who look on everything from a utilitarian 

 point of view, will be glad to learn that the Wood- 

 Sorrel is not merely ornamental, but useful. The 

 essential salt of lemons, well known to ladies as a 

 remover of inkspots from linen, is a form of oxalic 

 acid prepared from its leaves. Gerarde tells us that 

 our Oxalis "maketh better greenesauce than any 

 other herbe or sorrell whatsoever ;" and again, that 

 " of all sorrell sauces [it] is the best, not only in 

 vertuc, but also in the pleasantnesse of his taste." 

 The green sauce alluded to is still used as a fish-sauce 

 upon the Continent. If further "vertues" be needed, 

 the same author informs us that " it quencheth thirst 

 and cooleth mightily an hot pestilential! fever, 

 especially being made iu a syrrup with sugar." 



The name Wood-Sorrel is possibly a corruption 

 of the older one, Wood Sour : the names of Cuckoo 

 Sorrel, Stubwort, and Sour Trefoil were also given 

 to it. Gerarde says "the Apothecarys and Her- 

 barists call it Allcluya and Pauls Cuculi, or 

 Cuckowes meate, because either the Cuckow feedeth 

 thereon, or by reason when it springcth forth and 

 flourcth, the Cuckow singeth most, at which time 

 also Alleluya was wont to be sung in churches," 

 that is, at Easter. In Buckinghamshire a semblance 



