Every child knows how the wood-sorrel "goes to sleep" by drooping
its three leaflets until they touch back to back at evening,
regaining the horizontal at sunrise - a performance most
scientists now agree protects the peculiarly sensitive leaf from
cold by radiation. During the day, as well, seedling, scape, and
leaves go through some interesting movements, closely followed by
Darwin in his "Power of Movement in Plants," which should be read
by all interested.
Oxalis, the Greek for sour, applies to all sorrels because of
their acid juice; but acetosella = vinegar salt, the specific
name of this plant, indicates that from it druggists obtain salt
of lemons. Twenty pounds of leaves yield between two and three
ounces of oxalic acid by crystallization. Names locally given the
plant in the Old World are wood sour or sower, cuckoo's meat,
sour trefoil, and shamrock - for this is St. Patrick's own
flower, the true shamrock of the ancient Irish, some claim.
Alleluia, another folk-name, refers to the joyousness of the
Easter season, when the plant comes into bloom in England.
Pages:
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274