NAT. ORDER. 
HoloracecB. 
RUMEX ACETOSA. SOUTHERN SORREL. 
Class VL Hexandria. Order III. Trtgynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx three-leaved. Petals, three, converging. Seed, 
one, three-sided. 
Spe. Char. Flowers dioecious. Leaves oblong, sagitate. 
The stein is erect, striated, rises from six to twelve inches in 
height, and of a purplish red color ; the leaves are oblong, ovate ar- 
row-shaped, and of a bright green color; the radical ones are peti- 
olate and obtuse ; those of the stem without footstalks, placed alter- 
nately and pointed ; the jlowers are dioecious, and are disposed in 
terminal branched spikes, standing upon short slender peduncles ; 
the corolla is divided into three petals, and the calyx into three oval 
segments ; the filaments are short, bearing erect large anthers ; the 
styles are short, supporting large bearded stigmas, and proceeding 
from a triangular germen. It flowers from July until October. 
There are few parts of the world that do not acknowledge the 
presence of some species of this plant. In Europe, Africa, North 
America, and many parts of Asia, they fill the ditches, hedges and 
waste grounds, and form a considerable portion of the pasturage in 
poor and sandy soils. The leaves of the Southern Sorrell have an 
agreeable acid taste, very much like that of Oxalis Acetosella, or 
Wood Sorrel, which we have described in Vol. 1, page 176 ;the prop- 
erties of both are so near alike, that they are medicinally employed 
for the same purposes, and what has already been said of that plant, 
will in a great measure apply to this ; being easily procured, and in 
great abundance, may be substituted for it. 
Vol. ii.— 19 
