MRS. B.
No; that salt consists of the oxalic acid, combined with a little potash. It is found in that state in sorrel.
CAROLINE.
And pray how does it take out ink-spots?
MRS. B.
By uniting with the iron, and rendering it soluble in water.
Besides the vegetable materials which we have enumerated, a variety of other substances, common to the three kingdoms, are found in vegetables, such as potash, which was formerly supposed to belong exclusively to plants, and was, in consequence, called the vegetable alkali.
Sulphur, phosphorus, earths, and a variety of metallic oxyds, are also found in vegetables, but only in small quantities. And we meet sometimes with neutral salts, formed by the combination of these ingredients.
[CONVERSATION XXI.]
ON THE DECOMPOSITION OF VEGETABLES.
