FAMILY HERBAL. 317 



they are Avhite or reddish, and not very large ; 

 the root is knobbed and Has great many fibres 

 running from it : it is of a disagreeable mawkish 

 taste. 



The root is used ; and it should be fresh taken 

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

 motes urine and perspiration. It is an excellent 

 sweetener of the blood. 



Sorrel. Acslosa. 



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 a!! indented about the edges. The (lowers stand 

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

 (locks, 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 are 

 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 

 km to this, and of the same virtue : one small, 

 called sheep's sorrel, common on dry banks ; the 

 other large, with broad leaves, called garden 

 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 ail, that it must be described sepa- 

 rately. 



