OXALIS CERNUA. 



long; and as each bulb generally throws up at least half-a-dozen scapes in succession, 

 the flowering season of the plant may be fairly said to extend over a period of two 

 months. 



Cultivation. — After blooming, the plants should be exposed in a sunny corner, out 

 of doors, water being gradually withheld. By degrees the leaves will assume a yellow 

 tint, and finally fall off; and in tbis condition, the pots containing the bulbs should 

 be placed aside, and kept perfectly dry until the season arrives for repotting them. 

 If the ball of earth be now examined, a strong fibre may be traced from the surface- 

 bulb quite to the bottom of the pot, and usually terminated by a cluster of young bulbs 

 each of the size of a nut. A pot, planted originally with three bulbs, will often contain, 

 after flowering, a dozen or more full-sized roots ; so that abundant facilities are offered 

 for its propagation. At the base of the old bulb, which perishes, and also upon the 

 short stipe proceeding from it, small offsets are often produced; but they are too 

 minute to be available for the ready increase of the plant. In September, about which 

 time the roots will begin to grow, they may be repotted in sandy loam, with a little 

 peat or leaf-mould, planting them, if large, singly, in a four-inch pot, about an inch 

 below the surface ; but it is usual, and indeed preferable, to place from three to five 

 or six bulbs in one of rather larger diameter, a good drainage of pot-sherds or fragments 

 of charcoal being indispensable. As long as the weather continues mild, the pots may 

 remain in a warm nook out-doors, due precaution being taken to protect the plants 

 from those pests of the gardener, slugs and snails ; and if kept properly watered, they 

 will make rapid progress. At the approach of frosts, it will be advisable to remove 

 the pots to a warm window where plenty of air can be admitted, when, with a little 

 attention, they will produce throughout the earlier months of the year an abundance 

 of flowers of the brightest tint. The numerous flower-stalks will need the aid of a 

 slight support, and it is also important to note, that neither this nor any other plant 

 can be kept long in a healthy condition, when grown in the desiccated atmosphere of 

 a room in which a fire is constantly kept. 



Our plant is not a recent introduction, having been brought from the Cape of Good 

 Hope as long since as the year 1767. It was purchased by us as 0. flava, which is, 

 however, a species of a very different character, with digitate leaves, and one-flowered 

 peduncles. 



The trivial name of the plant is by no means distinctive, for there are several species 

 the flowers of which droop before expansion ; and the same may be said of the leaves. 

 The genus derives its name from the Greek word oxi/s, sour or sharp, in allusion to the 

 acid properties of many of the species, due to the presence in their tissues of oxalic 

 acid, usually combined with potash. 



It is scarcely necessary for us to observe in these clays of diffused chemical knowledge 

 that the potash is the only constituent of the combination thus formed (termed by 

 chemists the bin-oxalate of potash) that is derived from the soil, the oxalic acid being 

 elaborated in the plant through the agency of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, that 



