28 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



Woods, where there is little or no undergrowth to outgrow this 

 tender little wild flower, are the places in which to look for Wood 

 Sorrel. It is a shade-loving plant which may be found growing on the 

 sloping banks of little tree-sheltered ravines removed from woods, but 

 is most luxuriant and widespread in the latter. 



This delicate, pretty, bulbous plant has no aerial stem. The leaves 

 are ternate or divided into 3, and consist of 3 leaflets, hairy, stalked, 

 three-nerved, the leaf-stalks not winged. The root is toothed and 

 creeping. 



The scape or flowering stem is longer than the leaves, with two 

 bracts or leaflike organs at the top, and is single-flowered. The flowers 

 are white with purple veins, and of two kinds, the smaller being 

 cleistogamic, like the Violet. When flowering is over the scape or 

 flowering stem bends down, and when the seed is ripe it becomes 

 erect. When ripe the fruits may be opened at the angles, and the 

 seeds are thrown to a distance. The capsule is divided into five 

 chambers, with two black, smooth seeds in each attached to the central 

 pillar. 



Three inches is the greatest height of this lowly, graceful flower, 

 which blooms in April and May. It is perennial, increasing by offsets. 



Wood Sorrel is dimorphic, i.e. there are two or more forms, and the 

 flowers are cleistogamic, like those of the Violet. Here the smaller ones 

 are cleistogamic and bury the capsules in the ground, and the larger 

 ones are normal and conspicuous. The anthers and stigma mature 

 together. In the rain the flowers bend over. There are five fleshy 

 nectaries or knobs at the base of the petals. The flowers open between 

 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The dimorphic characteristics, with the variations 

 between long- and short-styled forms, affords greater chance of cross- 

 pollination. 



Wood Sorrel disperses its seeds immediately around it. When the 

 capsule is mature it is stretched, and this causes it to split open and 

 eject the seeds, by a catapult motion, to some distance. Really the 

 seeds eject themselves. The cells of the inner layer are small and 

 swollen. The coat splits down one side, and the inner cells expand, 

 turn the coat inside out, the inner and outer coat changing place. 



This plant is a lover of humus, and requires a humus soil, being 

 also to a certain extent a clay-lover, requiring a clayey soil. 



The Wood Sorrel is infested by no fungi or insect pests. 



Oxalis, Pliny, is derived from the Greek oxus, sharp, acid, and aceto- 

 sclla is from Latin acetum, sour wine, vinegar; Sorrel is derived from 

 sour. 



