SORREL FAMILY. Oxalidaceae. 



Yellow Wood 

 Sorrel or 

 Lady's Sorrel 



Oxalis cymosa 

 Yellow 

 May-Septem= 

 ber 



One of the commonest yellow sorrels of 

 the north ; not a woodland plant but fa- 

 miliar by every roadside and in every field 

 and garden. The light green stem erect, 

 rather smooth , or sparingly hairy (viewed 

 under the glass) ; the leaves of three heart- 

 shaped leaflets (smaller than those of the 

 last species), long-stemmed and somewhat drooping ; 

 without small leafy formations at the junction of leaf- 

 stem and plant-stem. The rather deep lemon yellow 

 flowers scarcely £ inch broad, with five long ovate petals 

 and ten yellow stamens alternately long and short ; the 

 heart of the blossom is green. There are 2-6 flowers 

 on a somewhat horizontally spreading, brariched stem, 

 which are succeeded by hairy seed-pods \ inch long set 

 at scarcely a wide angle with their stalks. Visited by 

 the smaller bees, and Syrphid flies, and also occa- 

 sionally by the tiny butterflies (Hespcria). 3-12 inches 

 high, with a weak stem but strong root. The O. cor- 

 niculata, var. stricta, of the sixth ed. of Gray's Manual. 



A far less common species, an annual or 

 Yellow Wood . !i*V * w 



Sorrel or perennial, sustaining itself by far-reaching 



Lady's Sorrel running roots. Generally less upright 



Oxalis stricta than the last. With leafy formations at the 



May-Septem- bages of the l ea f-stalks. Pods elongated, 



and erect, often set at a sharp angle 



with their stalks. In other respects very similar to the 



foregoing species, but rare ; near Burlington, Vt. (T. 



E. Hazen). 



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