68 FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE RIVIERA 



established not only on the Riviera, where it is spreading eastward, but in Algeria, 

 Sicily and other islands of the Mediterranean. 



Waste places and cultivated ground. February-April. 



O. corniculata L. Annual or perennial, pubescent, without stolons. 

 Leaves all cauline, stipulate, smaller than in the last. Peduncles 3-4 flowered. 

 Flowers rather small, yellow. Fruiting pedicels deflexed. Capsule linear-oblong, 

 downy. 



Road-sides and waste places, common. Flowering almost all the year. 



O. stricta L. is recorded from Villefranche, and O. floribunda Lk., with 

 beautiful pink flowers, is naturalized near Hyeres and St. Tropez. 



0. Acetosella L. Wood-sorrel. This well-known British plant with 

 delicate white flowers veined with lilac, radical leaves and one-flowered radical 

 peduncles, is rare in the Mediterranean region. 



Mountain woods in Alpes-Marit. April-May. 



IMPAT1ENS L. 



1. noli=tangere L. Yellow Balsam. A fleshy, glabrous, bright green 

 annual, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves oval, petioled, serrate-crenate. Flowers irregular, 

 yellow, spotted with red at the throat, 3-4 on axillary slender peduncles. Calyx 

 petaloid, of 5 unequal sepals ; the posterior sepal funnel-shaped, gradually con- 

 tracted into a slender spar with entire lip. Capsule of 5 elastic valves separating 

 from the placentas and then twisting. 



Shady woods in the montane region of the Alpes-Marit., rare. July. 



ZYGOPHYLLACE^. 



TRIBULUS L. 



T. terrestris L. An annual, prostrate, creeping, downy plant. Leaves 

 opposite, shortly petioled, pinnate, with 5-8 pairs of small elliptic leaflets. 

 Flowers small, yellowish, regular, axillary, solitary on short peduncles. Stamens 

 10. Style i, short ; stigma 5 rayed. Capsule pentagonal, flat, spiny, separated 

 into 5 spreading star-shaped, very hard divisions, each one with 4 spines. 

 Sandy fields near the sea, local. May- September. 



CORIARIACE^E. 

 CORIARIA L. (the only genus). 



C. myrtifolia L. Shrub 6-10 ft. high, glabrous. Leaves opposite, ovate- 

 lanceolate, entire, 3 nerved, nearly sessile. Flowers regular, small, greenish 

 with red styles, in erect panicles. Petals.5, alternating with the sepals. Styles 

 5, long, filiform, reddish. Fruit black and shining when ripe. 

 Woods and hill-sides. April-July. 



RUTACE^E. 



Calyx persistent ; petals concave ; flowers regular RUTA. 



Calyx falling and petals flat ; flowers irregular DICTAMNUS. 



RUTA L. RUE. 



R. angustifolia Pers. = R. graveolens All. part (Plate IX). Glaucous, 

 shortly pubescent, 1-2 ft. high, very foetid, glandular in upper part. Leaves 

 bipinnatisect, with ioblong segments. Bracts lanceolate, narrower than the 

 peduncle. Sepals obtuse. Flowers yellow ; petals>fringed with cilia, as long as 

 broad. Capsule subglobular, with 4-5 acute lobes. 



Dry, stony places and woods, common. May-July. 



R. bracteosa DC, Resembles the last but is not glandular above, and is 

 greener. Leaves larger with oblong segments, the lower leaflets like stipules 

 and petioled. Petals broader, with finer cilia, half the width of the limb. 



Old walls and dry places. April-June. 



