660 ^OXALIS. CCLASS X. ORDER IV. 



agreeable addition. It has been esteemed medicinally as an anti- 

 scorbutic diuretic and refrigerenl, and affords a pleasant beverage to 

 the feverish patient, when either the bruised leaves or juice is boiled 

 with milk, and the curd separated from the whey, it is cooling and 

 refreshing, and the pleasant acid allays the thirst. The leaves were 

 also formerly made into a confection, called Conserva Luzuloe, and 

 used for the same medicinal purposes. 



2. O, cornicuHatat Linn. (Fig. 750.) Yellow procumbent Wood- 

 sorrel. Stem branched; branches procumbent at the base; leaves 

 ternate; leaflets obcordate ; stipules oblong, attached to the petiole; 

 peduncles with a terminal umbel, of two to five flowers, shorter than 

 the leaves; pedicles reflexed in fruit. 



English Botany, t. 1726.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 324.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 214. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 59. 



Boot of branched spreading fibres. Stem branched from the base 

 downy, round, striated, leafy, the lower branches procumbent and 

 rooting from the joints, mostly of a pinkish colour. Leaves alternate, 

 or opposite, onf^long slender footstalks, downy, with a pair of oblong 

 membranous stipules, attached to the base, leaflets three, terminal, 

 nearly sessile, inversely heart-shaped, somewhat downy, paler beneath. 

 Floivers rather small, yellow, from two to five, on short pedicles, ter- 

 minating the slender peduncles, which are mostly shorter than the 

 leaves. Bractea small, lanceolate. Calyx of five lanceolate seg- 

 ments. Petals small, yellow, united at the base into a short tube. 

 Stamens with short filaments, united at the base. Capsule rather 

 large, reflexed on the pedicle, angular, with a pyramidal point. Seeds 

 numerous, invested in a fleshy striated arillus. 



Habitat. — Shady places in the South of England, Sussex, Devon- 

 shire. In Scotland, near Stirling and Glasgow ; but it is a doubtful 

 native. 



Annual ; flowering during the summer months. 



This species is nearly allied to O. striata, Linn, a native of North 

 America, from which, however, it is readily distinguished from our 

 plant by the want of stipules to the leaves. 



The leaves, though acid, are much less so than those of the last 

 species. It is a very common plant in many parts of the Continent, 

 and is used for the same purposes as the Wood-sorrel. 



The genus Oxalis is very extensive, many of the species are very 

 pretty and ornamental, adding greatly to the beauty of our green- 

 houses ; many afford an excellent vegetable in their leaves, and others 

 are cultivated for the esculent tubers formed upon the roots. 



