Wood sorrel.
Luiula.
A very pretty little plant, common about our wood sides, and distinguished by its bright green elegant leaves, and pretty flowers. The leaves rise in considerable number from the same root; they stand three together upon separate, long, and very slender foot-stalks, of a reddish colour; each is of a heart-like shape, the broad and indented part hanging downwards, and the three smaller ends meeting on the summit of the stalk. The flowers are whitish, tinged with purple, very bright and delicate; they stand also on single stalks, and rise immediately on the root. The seed-vessels are large, and when ripe, they burst asunder with the least touch, and the seeds fly about. The root is small and irregular.
The leaves are used; they are to be fresh gathered; their roots are very agreeably acid, and the juice of them makes a pretty syrup. The leaves also beat up with three times their weight of sugar, make an excellent conserve. They are good to quench thirsts in fevers, and they have the same virtue with the other against the scurvy and in sweetening the blood.
