3^4 



Docks and Sorrels. 



[AUG., 



creeping rootstock (Fig. 2). The lower leaves are hastate, or 

 somewhat arrow-head shaped, and borne on long stalks, 

 while the upper leaves are sessile and narrowly-lanceolate or 

 linear. The panicles of small flowers are several inches long, 

 branched and leafless, and male and female flowers are borne 

 on separate plants. Flowering takes place from May to 

 August. Owing to the presence of acid oxalates, this plant is 

 acid to the taste. Towards late summer and autumn it 

 becomes reddish in colour. The small, triangular, yellow- 

 brown fruits are a common impurity in clover and grass 

 seeds. 



Sheep's Sorrel is typically a weed of dry pastures, and is 

 held to be an indication of poor, sour land; it is also very 

 common in hay land, and also often occurs in arable land. Hall 

 says* that in arable land the presence of this plant is a pretty 

 sure sign of the absence of lime. Like other useless plants, 

 Sheep's Sorrel replaces good herbage, and the best way to 

 get rid of it is by improving the condition of the fields in 

 which it occurs. This may be brought about by systematic 

 manuring, and by the application of lime at the rate of 30 cwt. 

 per acre if the land be light, or up to 3 tons per acre if the soil 

 be heavy and wet. On heavy land basic slag will be of 

 much value. In arable land, the application of lime in con- 

 junction with tillage operations and the removal of the creep- 

 ing roots will have the effect of reducing it. 



Common Sorrel (Rumex Acetosa, L.), the leaves of which 

 are so commonly eaten by children on account of their 

 pleasantly acid taste, somewhat resembles Sheep's Sorrel. It 

 is, however, larger (one to two feet), and has a slender, simple 

 stem, while the leaves are much larger and longer stalked than 

 in the case of the other species. The branched panicle is 

 leafless, and opens its flowers between May and August, the 

 male and female flowers being on separate plants. The root- 

 stock is a slender and tufted tap-root. Common Sorrel, Sour 

 Dock or Sourock, is a perennial which occurs in most 

 meadows, sometimes in great quantity. If not too plentiful, 

 it may be spudded or regularly cut down, but removal by 

 hand is impracticable as the tap-root is deep-seated. Dress- 

 ings of mixed artificial manures tend to weaken the Sorrel, 



* A. D. Hall, Fertilisers and Manures, 1909. 



