FAMILY HERBAL. 317 



they are white or reddish, and not verj large : 

 the root is knobbed and has a great many jfibres 

 running from it : it is of a disagreeable mawkish 

 taste. 



The roof is used ; and it should be fresh tak^i 

 up; a decoction of it opens obstructions^ and pro- 

 motes urine and perspiration. It is an ex<;eli€nt 

 sweetener of the blood. 



SoRR£L. Acetosa. 



A COMMON plant in our meadows^ with 

 broad and oblong leaves, striated stalks, and red-- 

 dish tufts of flowers. It is a foot and half high. 

 The stalk is round, not very firm, upright and a 

 little branched. The leaves are of a deep green, 

 angulated at the base, blunt at the point, and not 

 at all indented about the edges. The flowers stand 

 on the tops of the stalks, in the manner of those of 

 docks^ of which sorrel is indeed a small kind* 

 They are reddish and husky ; the root is small 

 and fibrous ; the whole plant has a sour taste. 



The leaves eaten as a sallad, or the juice taken, 

 are excellent against the scurvy. The seeds arc 

 astringent, and may be given in powder for fluxes. 

 The root dried and powdered, is also good against 

 purgings, the overflowing of the menses, and 



bleedings. 



^ There are two other kinds of sorrel, nearly of 



kin to this, and of the same virtue : one small. 



called sh 



drv banks : (be 



other large, with broad leaves, called gardeu 

 sorrel, or round leaved sorrel : this is rather pre- 

 ferable to the common kind. Besides these, there 

 is a plant called in English a sorrel, so different 

 from them all, that it must be described sepa* 



