172 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



layer the cells are not so large, closely compressed, 

 and turgid. The coat splits on one side, the inner 

 cells expand, so that the coat turns inside out, the 

 inner layer coming to the outside, the outer to the 

 inside. 



Wood Sorrel is called also Wood Sour from its 

 acid taste. 



The plant is so familiar to most country dwellers 

 that it has a large number of names — Alleluia, Bird's 

 Bread-and-Cheese, Cuckoo Bread, Cuckoo-meat, 

 Green-sauce, Gowk Meat, Laverocks, Lujula, Rabbit- 

 meat, Shamrock, etc. 



In country places children call the Wood Sorrel 

 Bread and Cheese or Cuckoo's Meat ; in Latin it is 

 Pa7iis cuculi, in French Pain de coucou. In Devonshire 

 it is called Cuckoo's Sorrel or Cuckoo's Bread. In 

 Wales the flower is called Fairy Bells, used, so it 

 was held, by the tiny folk, to call them to *' moon- 

 light dance and revelry." 



Wood Sorrel was connected in the days of super- 

 stition with fairies. The plant is the Shamrock of 

 St. Patrick, if there be any particular plant that 

 can be so called, as the emblem of the Trinity is 

 just as well illustrated by many trefoils. 



When the juice is pressed out and evaporated 

 crystals are formed. These constitute salts of 

 lemon. The plant is poisonous, but has been used 

 as a salad. 



The staining of the petals with pink lines (honey- 

 guides) led to the idea that they were stains of blood, 



