Sorrel

Sorrel doth undoubtedly cool and mightily dry; but because it is sour, it likewise cutteth tough humors.

The juice hereof in Summer time is a profitable sauce in many meats, and pleasant to the taste: it cooleth an hot stomach, moveth appetite to meat, tempereth the heat of the liver, and openeth the stoppings thereof.

The leaves are with good success added to decoctions which are used in agues.

The leaves of Sorrel taken in good quantity, stamped and strained into some ale, and a posset made thereof, cool the sick body, quench thirst, and allay the heat of such as are troubled with a pestilent fever, hot ague, or any great inflammation within.

The leaves sodden, and eaten in manner of a Spinach tart, or as meat, soften and loosen the belly and attemper and cool the blood exceedingly.

The seed of Sorrel drunk in gross red wine stoppeth the lask and bloody flux.

Gerard, p. 397 (page marked 498).

Jaume Saint-Hilaire, La flore. Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden.