NAT. OllDER. 



Holoracea;. 



RUMEX ACETOSA. SOUTHERN SORREL. 



Class VI. Hexandria. Ordei- III. Trigyma. 



Gen. Char. Gz/y^: three-leaved. Pe^a/5, three, converging. Seed, 

 one, three-sided. 



Spe. Char. Flowers dioecious. Leaves oblong, sagitate. 



The stem is erect, striated, rises from six to twelve inches in 

 height, and of a purplish red color ; the leaves are oMong, ovate ar- 

 row-shaped, and of a bright green color; the radical ones are peti- 

 olate and obtuse ; those of the sfon without footstalks, jilaced alter- 

 nately and pointed ; l\ie Jlowers are dioecious, and are disposed in 

 terminal branched spikes, standing upon short slender peduncles ; 

 the corolla is divided into three petals, and the calyx into three oval 

 segments ; the filaments are short, bearing erect large anthers ; the 

 stxjles are short, supporting large bearded stigmas, and proceeding 

 from a triangular germen. It flowers from July until October. 



There are few parts of the world that do not acknowledge the 

 presence of some species of this plant. In Europe, Africa, North 

 America, and many parts of Asia, they fill the ditches, hedges and 

 waste grounds, and form a considerable portion of the pasturage in 

 poor and sandy soils. The leaves of the Southern Sorrel! have an 

 agreeable acid taste, very much like that of Oxalis Acetosella, or 

 Wood Sorrel, which we have described in Vol. 1, page 176 ; the prop- 

 erties of both are so near alike, that they are medicinally employed 

 for the same purposes, and what has already been said of that plant, 

 will in a great measure apj)ly to this ; being easily procured, and in 

 great abundance, may be substituted for it. 



Vol. ii.— 19 



