584 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 



EUROPE . 



Naturalized; widely diffused on the Pacific coast from British Columbia to south- 

 ern California. Rare in the Atlantic States. 



ALABAMA: Adventive with ballast. Mobile; June. Rare. Observed for several 

 seasons maturing seeds well. Annual. 



Economic uses: Considered on the Pacific as one of the most valuable wild pas- 

 ture plants. 



Type locality : " Hab. in Europae sterilibus cultis." 



Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 



OXALIDACEAE. Wood-sorrel Family. 



OXALIS L. Sp. PI. 1 : 433. 1753.' 



About 200 species, chiefly of tropical America, South Africa. North America 17, 

 Atlantic 8. 



Oxalis corniculata L. Sp. PI. 1 : 435. 1753. CREEPING SORHKL. 



Ell. Sk. 1:520. Gray, Man. ed. 6, 105. Chap. Fl. ed.3,65. Coulter, Contr. Nat. 

 Herb. 2 : 52. Wats. Bot. Calif. 1 : 96. 



EUROPE, NORTHERN AFRICA, ASIA, MEXICO, COSMOPOLITAN. 



Carolinian and Lonisiauian areas. Indigenous in the interior in Missouri, 

 Arkansas, Texas, and California, and from all appearances in the Gulf States. 



ALABAMA: Cultivated and waste places. Tuscaloosa County (E. A. Smith). Lee 

 County, Anburn (Maker $ Earle, 103). Mobile. Flowers yellow; March, May. 

 Not rare. Easily recognized by the low prostrate habit of its growth. Perennial 

 from a creeping rootstock. 



Type locality : " Hab. in Italia, Sicilia." 



Herb. Geol. Snrv. Herb. Mohr. 



Oxalis stricta L. Sp. PI. 1 : 435. 1753. COMMON YELLOW SORREL. 



Oxalis corniculata var stricta Sav. in Lam. Encycl. 4:683. 1797. 



Ell. Sk. 1:526. Gray, Man. ed. 6, 105, in part. Chap. Fl. ed. 3, 65. Coulter, 

 Contr. Nat. Herb. 2 : 52. Britt. & Br. 111. Fl. 2 : 346. 



Stem mostly simple, erect or branched at the base from a slender perennial root- 

 stock, 6 to 8 inches high; leaves smoothish or strigosely pubescent, f inch to H 

 inches wide; leaflets little wider than long, fleshy, smoothish, ciliate, broadly emar- 

 giuate, the cellular structure prominent under the lens; peduncles umbellate, 

 longer than the leaves, 2 to 6 inches long, axillary from the clustered leaves; pedi- 

 cels i to f inch long, almost horizontally deflexed in fruit; pods columnar, 

 abruptly pointed with the short styles, to - inch long, seed somewhat acute at 

 the base with strong interrupted transverse ridges. Flowers yellow, small. 



Alleghenian to Louisianian area. Canada; New England to Dakota, south to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



ALABAMA: Over the State. In low damp pround, grassy banks, fields, and woods. 

 Flowers May. Common. Annual or perennial. 

 Type locality : "Hab. in Virginia." 

 Herb. Mohr. 



Oxalis recurva Ell. Sk. 1:526. 1817. LARGE-FLOWERED WOOD SORREL. 



Ell. Sk. 1. c. Chap. Fl. cd. 3, 65. Britt. & Br. 111. Fl. 2 : 347. 



A 'nore slender plant than the above, perennial. Stems mostly several from the 

 wiry stoloniferous rhizoma, rigid, scarcely over 6 inches in length; leaflets thin- 

 ner, about inch wide and scarcely as long, the cellular structure less prominent 

 under the lens; peduncles slender, umbellate, longer than the leaves, hirsute with 

 strigose adprcssed hairs; pedicels 2 to 4 in the umbellate cluster, almost filiform, 

 incurved and at length reflexed; pod acuminate, crowned with the long styles; 

 seeds with uninterrupted transverse ridges. * 



Carolinian and Louisianian area. Northwestern Virginia at sea level, southwestern 

 Virginia at 2,000 feet; southeastern Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina at 

 sea level. 



1 J. K. Small, Two species of Oxalis, Bull. Torr. Club, vol. 21, pp. 471 to 479. 1894. 

 Same author, A neglected species of Oxalis and its relatives, op. cit., vol. 23, pp. 265 

 to 269. 1896. 



2 See J. K. Small, Bull. Torr. Club, 21 : 471, t. 222. 



