156 FLORA OF JAMAICA Oxali» 



stigmas ; ovules in the inner angle of each cell, one to numerous. 

 Fruit 5-celled, a capsule in Oxalis, or a fleshy berry in the 

 cultivated AverrJwa. Seeds generally covered with an aril. 

 Endosperm fleshy ; embryo straight. 



Species about 310, mostly in tropical and subtropical America, 

 and in S. Africa, very few throughout the tropics, and also very 

 few in the temperate regions. 



OXALIS L. 



Herbs. Leaves digitately 3-foliolate (in W. Indian species) ; 

 leaflets sensitive to light, drooping as the light disappears. 

 Ovules numerous in Jamaican species. Fruit a capsule, opening 

 loculicidally. Seeds covered by a white fleshy aril which bursts 

 elastically when they are ripe, and by its contraction expels 

 them ; testa transversely ridged, or minutely tuberculate. ' 



Species about 300, growing in tropical and subtropical 

 America, and also in 8. America beyond the tropics, and in 

 South Africa, very few occurring elsewhere in the tropics or in 

 temperate regions. 



Flowers yellow, 1 or 2 on an axillary peduncle .... 1. 0. corniculata. 

 Flowers rosy, several, corymbose or umbellate, on 



peduncles springing from the ground 2. 0. corymbosa. 



1. 0. corniculata L. Sp. PL 435 (1753); stems decumbent 

 or creeping, rooting at the nodes and giving ofi" ascending 

 branches; flowers yellow, 3, 2, or 1, on an axillary peduncle.^ — 

 Jacq. Oxal. \0, t. 5; Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Inch 133; Prog, in Fl. 

 Bras. xii. pt. 2, 492 ; Urb. Symh. Ant. iv. 312. O. caule &c. 

 Browne Mist. Jam. 231. O. repens Thunb. Oxal. 16 (1781); 

 Jacq. Oxal. 31, t. 78, /. 1 ; Bobinson in Journ. Bot. xliv. 387. 

 O. jamaicensis Macf. Jam. i. 182 (1837). Trifolium acetosum 

 corniculatum &c. Sloane Cat. 90 <t Hist. i. 18. Xanthoxalis 

 corniculata & X. Langloisii Small in N. Amer. Fl. xxv. 52 (1907). 

 Type in Herb. Linn. ; also a similar specimen in Hort. Cliff, in 

 Herb. Mus. Brit. 



Sorrel. 



A common weed in provision grounds, coilee pieces, gardens, etc. ; 

 Browne] Macfadyen ; St. Thomas in the Vale; St. Mary; McNabl J. P. 

 1222, Hart ! Bog Walk, Hitchcock ; Providence, 700 ft., TJiompson 1 waste 

 places, Castleton, 500 ft., Harris ! Fl. Jam. 8059, 11,009, 12,335, 12,384.— 

 All tropical and temperate regions. 



Sloane collected this species in Madeira on his voyage to Jamaica, but 

 not in Jamaica. See Herb. iv. 25. 



A variable annual herb. Stems "5-3 dm. and more, pubescent or 

 glabrescent. Leaflets broadly oboordate, more or less pubescent, margin 

 sometimes ciliate, 1-1*5 cm. br. ; petioles pubescent or glabrescent, 

 2-4 cm. 1. Stipules not free from the petiole, ciliate, l'5-2 mm. 1. 

 Peduncles more or less as long as, or longer than, the petiole, puberulous 



