The Wood-Sorrel. 261 



others. They have long been cultivated, and are great favo- 

 rites for their delicacy and beauty. In a late English work, 

 t he whole number of species, exclusive of florists' varieties, 

 j s reckoned at seventy-one. They bear so strong a family 

 likeness, that it is not easy to confound them with any other 

 genus. They are pretty little plants, some shrubby and some 

 herbaceous. The root is usually tuberous, the bulbs consisting 

 of fleshy scales, sometimes closely imbricate, sometimes loose 

 and diverging. In a few, the subterraneous stem, and the 

 terminating fibre of the bulb, produce little dog-toothed bulbs, 

 in such abundance as to fill the pot to the very bottom. Some- 

 times the bulb strikes downwards a radical fibre, from the 

 side of which grows a new bulb, which produces a new plant, 

 while the former perishes. Some of the species have a proper 

 stem, and others a scape, at the top of which are the flowers 

 in an umbel. The leaves are usually petioled, and mostly 

 ternate, in a few species binate and digitate. Almost all oi 

 them have an acid taste, on account of which they take their 

 generic name, which means sour, or sharp. This taste is 

 owing to the presence of oxalic acid, which is usually made 

 from O. Acetosella. The expressed juice of this plant affords 

 this acid in the form of a crystalline acid salt. It is used for 

 taking iron and ink stains out of linen, for scouring brass, and 

 for various other purposes. For taking out spots in linen, the 

 stained part is dipped in water, sprinkled with a little of the 

 powde/e^ salt, then rubbed on a pewter plate, after which the 

 spot is washed in warm water. 



Many of the species ripen seeds, from which, or from offsets, 

 they are readily propagated, and grown in a light soil, the 

 best being a mixture of sand, peat, and loam. They are best 

 kept in pots which will hold a great many roots. The earth 

 should be so light and sandy, as never to become hard, but 

 always soft enough not to resist the point of the finger when 

 pressed upon it. When the flowering time is passed, the pots 

 should be put aside, where they require neither care nor 

 water. In the beginning of August, they should be placed 

 in the open air, and moderately watered. About the middle 

 of September, after the leaves have appeared, they should 

 be placed in a very sunny, airy greenhouse, when they will 



