312 The Flora of Wiltshire. \_No. VI. cont.~\ 



11 Rumex Acetosa " tho Sorrel Dock. Engl. Bot t. 762. Reich. 

 Iconcs, v. 199. 



Locality. In damp woods and shady places. P. Fl. May. Arca y 

 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Found in all the Districts. 



Almost all our woods and thickets abound with this beautiful 

 little plant, whose drooping white flowers, delicately veined with 

 lilac, are finely contrasted with the neat bright green foliage which 

 early in the spring spreads in verdant patches over the wrecks of 

 the preceding autumn. The leaves are powerfully and gratefully 

 acid, containing more or less of the Oxalic either in a pure state or 

 in that of binoxalate of potash. This plant, says Gerarde, is called 

 by herbalists Alleluja and Cuckoo's meat, because it springs forth 

 and flowers with the singing of the Cuckoo, at which time Alleluja 

 also was meant to be sung in churches. It is sometimes named 

 Stubivort in Wiltshire, probably from its covering the ground among 

 the stubs in coppices when they are cut down. Mr. Bicheno is of 

 opinion that this plant was the ancient Shamrock of Ireland, 

 of (typical it must be confessed of the delicacy and susceptibility 

 temperament of its inhabitants,) and a few years since he read a very 

 interesting paper before the Linnean Society, " On the plant 

 intended by the Shamrock of Ireland," in which he attempted to 

 prove by botanical, historical, and etymological evidence, that the 

 original plant was not the white clover which is now employed as 

 the national emblem ; he stated that it would seem a condition at 

 least suitable if not necessary to a national emblem that it should 

 be something familiar to the people, and familiar too at that season 

 when the national feast is celebrated. Thus the Welsh have given 

 the Leek to St. David, being a favourite oleraceous herb and the 

 only green thing they could find on the first of March, the Scotch 

 on the other hand, whose feast is in autumn, have adopted the 

 Thistle. The white clover is not fully expanded on St. Patrick's 

 day, and wild specimens of it could hardly be obtained at this 

 season. Besides, it was probably, nay, almost certainly, a plant of 

 uncommon occurrence in Ireland during its early history, having 

 been introduced into that country in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, and made common by cultivation. Mr. Bicheno then 



