OXALIDACEAS. (WOOD-SORREL FAMILY.) 75 
Order 26. OXALIDACEiE. (Wood-Sorrel Family.) 
Plants with sour juice , compound leaves , and regular 
flowers , taiVA the sepals , petals , and stamens nearly as in 
Geranium ; m/A 5 separate styles and a 5- celled sev - 
eral-seeded pod. — The principal genus is 
OXALIS, L. Wood-Sorrel. 
Sepals 5, persistent. Petals 5, withering after expansion. 
Stamens 10, monadelphous at the base, alternately shorter. Pod 
membranaceous, deeply 5-lobed, 5-celled, each cell opening on 
the back. Seeds few in each cell, pendulous from the axis, ana- 
tropous, their outer coat loose and separating. Embryo straight 
in fleshy albumen. — Herbs, with alternate or radical stipulate 
leaves, mostly of 3 inversely heart-shaped leaflets, which close 
and droop at nightfall. (Name from d£us, sour.) 
* Stemless : leaves and scapes from a root-stock or bulb. 
h O* Acetosella, L. (Common Wood-Sorrel.) Root-stock 
creeping and scaly-toothed; scape lflowered ; petals white with red¬ 
dish veins, often notched. — Deep cold woods, Maine to Michigan, 
northward. June. — Plant 3 ; - 5 r high, sparsely hairy : the flower 
iP broad. Leaflets broadly obcordate. 
o. violacca, L. (Violet W^ood-Sorrel.) Bulb scaly; 
scapes several-flowered in an umbel, longer than the leaves; petals 
violet. — Rocky places, most common southward. May, June._ 
Nearly smooth, 5'-9 ; high. Leaves very broadly obcordate. Sepals 
tipped with a gland. Corolla V broad. 
* * Stems leafy : peduncles axillary. 
3. O. stricta, L. (Yellow Wood-Sorrel.) Perennial? by 
running subterranean shoots ; stems at first erect, branching; pedun¬ 
cles 2-6-flowered, longer than the leaves; petals yellow; pods elon¬ 
gated, erect in fruit, the cells several-seeded. — Borders of woods, 
fields, and cultivated grounds. May — Sept. — Probably we have but 
one species of Yellow Wood-Sorrel, which varies greatly in appear¬ 
ance and in the size of its flowers according to season and situation. 
Order 27. BAESAMINACEAD. (Balsam Family.) 
Annuals , with succulent stems gorged with a hland watery 
juice , and very irregular hypogynous flowers , the 5 stamens 
somewhat united , and the pod bursting elastically. — Char¬ 
acters as in the principal genus. 
