THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



367 



Rumex Acetosa,) and Acctosella, from the Latin 

 Acet, sharp, or sour-tasted. The leaves con- 

 tain an appreciable quantity of Oxalic Acid or 

 salts of sorrel, more commonly called salts of 

 lemon, a deadly poison, but they are never 

 gathered for that purpose now, as the acid is 

 obtained much more economically by another 

 process. Perhaps its presence secures them 

 immunity from the ravages of insects. I 

 have never observed them eaten, and perhaps 

 some of our Entomologists may be able to say 

 if any insect feeds upon them. The llowers 

 are exquisitely beautiful, being delicately 

 white with dark veins, bell-shaped, and large 

 for the plant, with 10 stamens and 5 styles of 

 rosy pink, nestling amongst the leaves, they 

 are always welcome as one of the harbingers 

 of spring, being found on sheltered banks 

 early in April, continuing through May and 

 June. These flowers although showy and 

 attractive produce very little seed, but this 

 plant is remarkable for producing two sep- 

 arate and totally distinct kinds of flowers at 

 different periods of the year. In Autumn, 

 say August and September, the plant bears a 

 profusion of cleistdgamic or concealed flow- 

 ers, (from cleistos, closed and gamo a mar- 

 riage) these flowers are born at the extremity 

 of slender curved stalks, which spring from 

 the base of the leaves, so that they can only be 

 found by careful search ; they look like small 

 unopened buds being little larger than a pin's 

 head. All the show)-, but unnecessary or non- 

 essential parts, are reduced to the smallest 

 possible compass, and the plant conserves all 

 its energies for the producing of seeds. The 

 five green sepals can be distinctly traced, but 

 the beautiful Corola of spring is reduced to 

 a small white speck which never expands. Of 

 the 10 stamens only one or two may be found 

 perfect, containing perhaps a dozen grains of 

 pollen, but these are very potent, and are readily 

 applied to the adjacent stigmas, the result 

 being 8 or 10 large seeds which are brown 

 and beautifully pitted when ripe. The Cap- 

 sules containing the seeds are as big as a pea, 

 being egg-shaped, and of a greenish yellow hue, 



and beautifully speckled with dusky spots, they 

 I might be mistaken for tiny eggs were it not 

 i for five rather prominent angles. As the 

 Capsules approach maturity their stalks be- 

 come straightened and elongated, and the seed- 

 vessels are brought above the level of the 

 leaves. When they burst certain elastic fibres 

 ! which are confined in a peculiar fleshy coat 

 which surrounds each individual seed, sud- 

 ( denly uncoil and eject the seeds with consider- 

 \ able force to a distance of several feet, accom- 

 panied by a crackling sound. The object of 

 j this is of course that the seeds may fall on 

 J fresh soil at a distance from the parent plant, 

 J for in the struggle for existence the young 

 I plants would have small chance of coming to 

 maturity, except for some such provision of 

 nature for the dissemination of the seeds. 

 When fully ripe the slightest touch will cause 

 the capsules to explode, and it is an amusing 

 experiment on a bright autumn day to run 

 one's hand along a bed of wood-sorrel, and 

 watch the noisy spluttering seeds flying in all 

 I directions, but except one should happen to 

 i hit the experimenter in the eye, not much 

 harm is likely to result from the spattering 

 fusilade of the Liliputian artillery. The 

 wood sorrell has received a variety of com- 

 mon names, such as "cuckoo-bread," and 

 "gowk's meat," from coming into flower when 

 the cuckoo is first heard. In some districts 

 it is called "Hallelujah," because it flowers 

 betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide, when the 

 Psalms ending with Hallelujah are appointed 

 to be sung. An old name is " Stabwort," and 

 in the ancient Herbals it is said to be " singu- 

 lar good in all wounds and stabbes into the 

 body." It is often spelled "stubwort," an 

 appropriate name, as it grows about the stubs 

 of felled wood. In Scotland it is called "rab- 

 bits' clover." "Sour clover "and "hearts" 

 from the shape of the leaves. Sheep eat it 

 freely, and seem to be fond of it. It grows very 

 readily in a closed fern case, and its lovely 

 evergreen leaves are an acquisition, but it 

 must be kept within bounds, or it will soon 

 monopolise the whole of the space. 



