GEIIANIACE.^. 215 



to be annual. It produces from the stem underneath the ground 

 slender stolons which develope into new individuals in the season 

 succeeding that in which they are produced. The stem is nearly 

 upright, scarcely branched except from the base, 6 to 18 inches 

 high, with the leaves crowded at intervals so as to form imperfect 

 whorls, and the stipules are smaller and completely combined 

 with the base of the leafstalk so that they appear to be absent. 

 The peduncles are longer, usually with more than 2 flowers, 

 which are in a small cyme at the apes, larger than in 

 O. corniculata; and the pedicels after flowering merely diverge 

 without being bent backwards as in that species. The sepals 

 are glabrous, and the capsules have only a few scattered hairs 

 instead of the dense coverin2: of down which clothes those of the 

 preceding plant. 



In this species we have an exam2)le of an American plant 

 becoming completely naturalized in Europe. In Britain it exists 

 in many more places than O. corniculata, and when once intro- 

 duced in any locality it appears to keep its ground ; so that it 

 seems fairly entitled to a place in our Plora. 



Upright Yelloio Wood Sorrel. 



French, Oxalide Raide. German, Steifer SauerJclee. 



The leaves of all the species of Oxalidefe are sensitive, and can be made to fold 

 np by an external stimulus. This property is possessed iu only a slight degree by the 

 British species. 



Sub-Ordek III.— BALSAMINE^. 



Plowers irregular. Sepals 3, coloured, deciduous ; the two 

 anterior ones extremely small ; the posterior one large (composed 

 of 3 united ?), hooded and spurred at the base, petaloid. Petals 

 4 or 5, the two lateral ones frequently united. Stamens 5, 

 with the filaments short and flattened ; the anthers slightly 

 cohering round the pistil. Fruit a 5-celled capsule (or 1-celled 

 by the abortion of the dissepiments) splitting loculicidally into 

 valves which roll up spirally, or an indehiscent berry. Seeds 

 exalbuminous, with the embryo straight. 



OENUS IK— I MPATIENS. Zinn. 



Flowers irregular. Sepals 3, caducous, imbricated, coloured ; 

 the lateral ones very small or absent ; the upper or inner one 

 (which at last becomes the outer or lower, by its weight twisting 

 the pedicel half round) very large, concave, Avith a straight or bent 



