SORREL (Rumex). Two or three species of Rumex are cultivated in gardens under the name of Sorrel; the common species (R. Acetosa) is a native of Britain. All are hardy perennials. Their leaves are used in salads and culinary preparations, and as a substitute for Spinach. Any kind of Sorrol succeeds best in a rather deep soil and moist situation. Plants may be raised from seeds, sown in drills about 15in. apart, in autumn or spring; or by dividing the rootstocks in March and April. When the seedlings are about 3in. high, thin them out to 12in. apart, and keep the ground occasionally hoed between afterwards. A plantation will last three or four years. Some leaves may be gathered for use in about two months from the time of seed-sowing. Besides the common species, R. Acetosa--of which there are numerous forms that have received distinctive names, indeed several have been described as species by continental botanists--there is the French Sorrel (R. scutatus), which has leaves more acid. This latter is distributed throughout Europe, but is not truly native in Britain; it is, however, naturalised in many places in the British Isles.