THE HERRING 137 



however erect, and resembles the beaked fruit of a gera- 

 nium ; each of the five carpels bears several seeds in a 

 single row. When the seeds are ripe, the capsule bursts, 

 and forcibly throws out the rounded, reddish-brown seeds, 

 which, when examined by a lens, are seen to be trans- 

 versely wrinkled. After the seeds have been expelled, 

 the valves by which they escaped close up, and there is 

 no sign that they have ever opened at all. This descrip- 

 tion, though not very full, is of interest as an early observa- 

 tion of a natural contrivance. In Dillenius' day botanists 

 were almost exclusively engaged upon the definition and 

 grouping of species. To find an equally interesting account 

 of a natural contrivance, we should have to go back to the 

 time of the ancients. The old Greek naturalists, besides a few 

 writers of rather later date, were attentive to these things. 

 Let us end our lesson with a little talk about the names 

 of the wood sorrel. What has wood sorrel to do with 

 sheep's sorrel, or a sorrel horse ? Sorrel means sour ; in- 

 deed we may now and then find in old books the name of 

 wood sour. Sheep's sorrel and wood sorrel are both of 

 them sour or acid, but how a horse of a particular colour 

 should come to be called sorrel I could not understand till 

 I turned to a dictionary. There I found that sorrel may 

 stand, not only for sour, but also for sere. A sorrel horse 

 has the colour of a withered leaf. Our undistinguishing 

 forefathers mixed up two words which had nothing to do 

 with one another, except that they were somewhat alike 

 in sound. Alleluia is given by Ray as an old English 

 name of wood sorrel ; no doubt it got this name because 

 its trefoil leaf, like that of the shamrock, was regarded as 

 a symbol of the Trinity. 



XXVII. THE HERRING. 



The mock-dissertation, which is aimed at all who dis- 

 course learnedly on very ordinary themes, hits the writers 

 of object-lessons, nature-studies, &c., pretty hard. The 



