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564 ORD. XXX, Gruinales. OXALIS ACETOSELLAs 
- THIS delicate little plant is excellently described by. Mr. Curtis, - 
(Flor. Lond.) we shall therefore adopt his description, as far as it 
coincides with our plan. The root is perennial, horizontal, scaly, 
and of.a bright red colour ;: the leaves grow three together, inver- 
sely heart-shaped, of a yellowish green colour, frequently purple 
underneath, and beset with a few hairs; the leaf stalks are about 
‘three inches Jong, nearly upright, tender, proceeding from little, 
bulbs, which form a kind of sheath, at the bottem these stalks 
are red-and round, but towards the top grooved on one side: the 
flowers are white or flesh-coloured, and elegantly streaked with 
red veins. The flower-stalk is somewhat longer than the leaf-stalk, 
and furnished near the top with two oval pointed bractez, which 
partly surround it; the calyx is divided into five segments; these 
are short, permanent, bluntish, membraneous at the edges, and 
| often spotted with purple; the petals are five, affixed to the recep- 
tacle ‘by the claws, which bend a little inward just above where 
the claws adhere together, they are blunt, slightly crenated, and 
tinged at the bottom with yellow; the stamina are ten, upright, 
white, the five exterior the shortest; the antherz are yellow and 
bilocular; the germen is quadrangular and green; the styles are 
five, very slender, a little longer than the stamina, and the stigma 
is blunt; the capsule is ovalish, pentagonal, spotted, divided into 
five cavities, each containing three seeds, which are heart-shaped, 
longitudinally grooved, convex on both sides, of a bright reddish 
brown colour, and inclosed within a shining white elastic arillus, 
by ‘the bursting of which the seeds are thrown out.{ This plant 
is a native of England, it flowers about April and May, and is 
commonly found in woods, or in shaded situations.* 
The Acetosella is totally inodorous, but-has a grateful acid taste,* 
t As a distinguishing part of the generic character, Ray says, “‘ Quod per 
maturitatem levi-tactu dissiliens cum impetu’semina ejaculantur, (hist. 1098.) 
* Mr. Curtis observes, that this plant continues to produce seeds during the 
greatest part of the summer, without any appearance of expanded blossoms. 
» This makes it useful in sallads, in some measure supplying the place af vinegar, 
