sensible remarks of the late Sir James Smith upon another 

 species shall have been considered. 



Speaking of O. monophylla, he says, O. lepida and 

 O. rostrata seem too nearly related to the above. There 

 is, in fact, not the least difference between any of them 

 except in the stamens and styles. In lepida five of the 

 stamens are extremely short, and the rest only half the 

 length of the styles, which in this species are remarkably 

 long, straight, and perfect, covered, like the longer stamens, 

 with glandular hairs ; their stigmas large and bearded. In 

 rostrata the styles are extremely short, smooth, and turned 

 out horizontally between the stamens ; the five shortest of 

 which rise far above them, and the five largest, which are 

 hairy, more than twice as far, ending in a very peculiar 



glandular tip above each anther. It may be conjectured 



that the two species of Oxalis in question may be sexual 

 varieties ; in one of which, effectually male, rostrata, the 

 stamens are most perfect ; in the other, lepida, the pistils. 

 Experience only can settle this curious question, which 

 appears not to have entered into the mind of their cultivator 

 and describer Jacquin. O. monophylla 'seems to be the natural 

 or ordinary state of the same plant, in which the stamens 

 and styles bear that due proportion to each other observable 

 in other species. 



To this we think it is impossible not to assent. The 

 paragraph seems to have escaped the notice of all those 

 who have subsequently written upon the genus Oxalis ; 

 and consequently we still find, even in the most respectable 

 modern enumerations, the spurious species of Jacquin pre- 

 served without much change. 



In the present case, O. purpurea, laxula, and breviscapa, 

 are bisexual ; variabilis and grandiflora male ; and rigidula, 

 speciosa, and suggillata, female. 



A native of the Cape of Good Hope, It will thrive in 

 any sunny situation to which frost has no access ; but, like 

 the rest of the Cape species, requires to be kept quite dry 

 when at rest. 



Our drawing was made in the Nursery of Messrs. Rol- 

 Hssons, of Tooting. 



J. L. 



