SXXT, GERANIACE.E. 167 



3. OXALIS, Linn. 



Acid herbs, rarely shrubby. Leaves radical or cauline, alternate, 

 digitately or piunately 3-foliolate. Flowers on axillary, 1- or more- 

 flowered peduncles, regular, yellow, rosy or white. Sepals 5, imbricate. 

 Petals 5, hypogynous, contorted. Disk without glands. Stamens 10, 

 free or united at the base, all antheriferous. Ovary 5-lobed, 5-celled ; 

 ovules 1-many in each cell ; styles 5, distiuct ; stigmas terminal, 

 capitate, 2-fid or laciniate. Capsule dehiscing loculicidally ; valves 

 persistent to the axis. Seeds with an outer fleshy coat bursting 

 elastically ; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy ; embryo straight. — 

 DiSTBiB." Largely distributed in S. Africa and S. America ; a few 

 species in temperate and tropical regions ; species more than 200. 



1. Cxalis corniculata, Liivi. Sp. PI. (1753) p. 435. A small 

 procumbent herb; stems rooting, pubescent with appressed hairs. 

 Leaves palmately 3-foliolate ; petioles li-'^ in. long, vexy slender, 

 pubescent ; stipules smnll, obloug, aduate to the petiole ; leaflets g-1 in. 

 long, obcordate, cnneate at the base, subsessile, glabrous or with a few 

 appressed hairs and with ciliate margins. Flowers axillaiy, subum- 

 bellate ; peduncles solitary, up to 31 in. long, deflexed in fruit, pubescent; 

 bracts beneath the pedicels lanceolate, hairy. Sepals g-y^ in. long, 

 obloug, obtuse, appressedly hairy outside. Petals yellow, oblong, rounded 

 at the apex, emarginate, twice as long as the sepals. Stigma papillose. 

 Capsules f in. long, linear-oblong, 5-angled, shortly beaked, tomeutose. 

 Seeds numerous, broadly ovoid, acute, transversely striate, brown. Fl. 

 B. L V. 1, p. 436; G-rah. Cat. p. 35; Dak. & Gibs. p. 42; Wight, 

 Icon. t. 18 : Boiss. Fl. Orient, v. 1, p. 866 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 1, p. 196; 

 Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1897) p. 266 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. 

 Prod. V. 5, p. 658. — Flowers : Oct.-May. Yebn. Ambusi. 



Common everywhere; a troublesome weed in gardens. — Distrib. Cosmopolitan. 



4. BIOPHYTUM, DC. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves crowded at the ends of the stem 

 and branches, abruptly pinnate ; leaflets opposite, oblique. _ Flowers 

 dimorphous, in small umbels ; peduncles terminal. Sepals 5, imbricate, 

 lanceolate, acuminate. Petals 5, yellow, connate into a salver-shaped 

 corolla. Stamens 10, distinct ; filaments free, the 5 inner longer. 

 Ovary 5-celled ; styles 5 ; stigmas notched at the apex or 2-fid. Capsule 

 ovoid or oblong or subglobose, dehiscing loculicidally into 5 spreading 

 valves. Seeds as in Gxahs. — Distrib. Tropical Asia, Africa and America; 

 species about 20. 



1. Biophytum sensitivum, DC. Prod. v. 1 (1824) p. 690. Annual; 

 stem erect, from 1-10 in, long, stout or slender, glabrous or hairy. 

 Leaves sensitive, crowded into a rosette on the top of the stem l-|^-3 in. 

 long ; petiole short ; rhachis slender, glabrous or hairy ; leaflets opposite, 

 I in. long, 6-15 pairs (the terminal pair the largest, the pairs becoming 

 smaller downwards), oblong, obliquely rounded and apiculate at the 

 apex, subsessile, glabrous, paler beneath. Flowers dimorphic, ^ in. across, 

 yellow; peduncles many, of various lengths up to 4 ui. long, slender, 

 pubescent or glabrous ; pedicels many ; bracts lanceolate, small, crowded 



