RUMEX AQUATICUS. 
X13 
form of the leaves of a plant, and in respect to the taste, there may 
be some doubt whether these authors have been correct, in 
exclusively applying it in the latter sense, as in the name 
Acetosa. 
Sensible Qualities. The leaves of this plant have no odour, 
but an agreeable acid taste, which depends upon the super-oxalate 
of potass they contain ; by drying, their acidity is much lessened. 
The expressed juice is greenish, and of rather an acid taste ; it is not 
changed by sulphate of iron, and effervesces slightly with salt of 
tartar. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The leaves of sorrel are 
refrigerant and diuretic, and are medicinally employed for the same 
purposes as the Oxalis Acetosella already described, we shall there- 
fore refer our readers to that article, (vide vol. i. p. 44). The leaves 
of this plant taken in large quantities as food,* will be found of con- 
siderable efficacy where an antiscorbutic regimen is required. f We 
are told by Dr. Clark that the natives of Wermeland, on the con- 
fines of Sweden, in seasons of great scarcity form it into bread, 
and that it is not unsalutary.:^ 
Off. The Leaves. 
RUMEX AQUATICUS. 
Water-dock.^ 
Class Hexandria.— Orc?er Trigynia. 
Nat. Ord. Holoraceje, Linn. Polygone^ Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx three-leaved. Petals three, converging. 
Seed one, three-sided • 
Spec. Char. Flowers hermaphrodite. Valvelets toothed, 
grain-bearing. Leaves linear. 
♦ In some parts of France it is cultivated as an edible vegetable. — Ed. 
t Boerhaave Hist. Plant, 4 B. part ii. p. 540. 
t Travels, &c. part. iii. p. 90. 4to. Land. 1823. 
§ Fig. a. tUe corolla enclosing the seed. b. A flower a little tnagnifled, shewing 
the anthers, c. A leaf as it proceeds from the lower part of the stem. 
VOL. II. R 
