GERANIACE^E. 211 



SPECIES I.— OXALIS ACETOSELLA. Linn. 

 Plate CCCX. 

 Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. V. Oxal. Tab. CXCIX. Fig. 4898. 



Rootstock horizontal, creeping, slender, with imbricated fleshy 

 tooth-like scales. Stem none. Leaves all radical, trifoliate. 

 Peduncles radical, one-flowered. Bracts ovate. Peduncles and 

 pedicels erect in fruit. Petals three or four times as long as the 

 calyx. Capsule prismatic-ovoid, jiyramidal at the apex. Seeds 

 about 3 in each cell, longitudinally ribbed. 



In damp woods, hedgerows, and shady places. Common, and 

 generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring. 



Rootstock slender, branched, creeping, scarcely buried, clothed 

 at intervals with the scale-like persistent enlarged bases of the leaf- 

 stalks, which are covered with long somewhat wiry hairs. Leaves on 

 stalks 2 to 8 inches long ; the lamina 1 to 2 inches across, consisting 

 of 3 inversely deltoid or transversely ovoid-detoid sub-sessile leaflets, 

 rounded and more or less deeply emarginate or obcordate at the 

 apes ; the three leaflets flat during the day, but each one folding 

 together inwards and hanging down at night. Peduncles from 

 the axils of the leaves, 2 to 8 inches high including the pedicel, the 

 commencement of which is only indicated by a pair of bracts. 

 Plower' f inch across, in form between funnel-shaped and bell- 

 shaped, Avhite, veined, more rarely pink or purple. Sepals broadly 

 elliptical, obtuse. Petals very delicate, obovate, erose at the apex, 

 cohering by a projection on each side immediately above the claw. 

 Stamens 5 long and 5 short, with the filaments united at the base. 

 Capsule erect, whitish, mottled with brownish-purple, twice or 

 thrice as long as the sepals, 5-angled in section, with each of the 

 cells containing 3 (or more rarely 2) seeds. Seeds brownish, oval- 

 obovate, flat, inclosed in a white fleshy arillus, by the contraction 

 of which they are expelled. Plant with scattered hairs, succulent 

 with acid juice. Leaves yellowish-green, generally purple beneath. 



Wood Sorrel. 



French, Oxalide Oseille. German, Gemeiner Sauerklee. 



There are but few walks or shady woods where in the eai-ly spring this pretty 

 little plant may not be found. The tiny white flowers with the delicate purple veins 

 are called by the Welsh " fairy bells," and are believed to ring the merry peals which 

 call the elves to " moonlight dance and revelry." There seems to surround this little 

 plant an atmosphere of mystery and legendary lore. It is said to be the true shamrock 

 of Ireland, and many and warm disputes have there been to determine whether this 

 name really belongs to the trefoil white clover or to the three-leaved Wood Sox'rel. 



