Tkaciiku's Leaflet. 



1207 



Field Sorrel 



PERENNIAL WEEDS 



Only a few of the commonest of these long-lived plagues of the farmer 



can be described, but any number may be studied in the same manner. 



Field Sorrel {Rumex acetosella). — Along roadsides, and in pastures and meadows, 

 particularly if the ground is rather dry and hard, one may see this hardy weed 

 crowding out its betters, declaring its presence as far as it can be seen by the 

 red hue which its clustering flower-spikes give to the fields where it grows. Until 

 she saw a patch of it in bloom, the writer had always wondered why red-brown 

 horses were called sorrel. Its tough, creeping, yellowish rootstocks seein to care 

 nothing for drought. But note that the stems of its slim, halberd -sliaped leaves 

 are grooved to carry whatever moisture they collect do^vn to the roots. The 

 leaves are covered all over with papillae, or tiny raised dots, little tongue-like 

 storehouses filled with an acid juice which is rather pleasant to the taste; at least 

 the writer used to think so when picking and eating it on the way to country 

 school in the spring. 



