288 THE WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. 



O. Acetosella, white wood-sorrel, is one of the family with which, on 

 account of its many common names and frequent reference by authors, we 

 are all perhaps familiar. In some places even it is known by the delightful 

 name of " Alleluia. ' Its delicate, campanulate, white or more often pink 

 flowers with their purple or magenta veinings are borne singly on scapes 

 that arise from a scaly, creeping rootstock and lift them slightly above the 

 leaves. Of these latter the leaflets are large and beautifully shaped, while 

 the stems show a covering of purplish hairs. Often among them one is 

 seen turning to a solid reddish purple. Through Tennessee the plant is only 

 found on the tops of the Big Smokies while on the upper slopes of the Craggies 

 in North Carolina it grows mostly under the shade of the Rhododendrons, 

 That it is well beloved is shown by its numerous and often amusing appella- 

 tions : " Cuckoo's meat " and " shamrock " being among the most general. 

 In England it is called the shamrock, although not at all supposed to be 

 the original one of Saint Patrick. For chemists it yields " salts of lemons," 

 Besides having the characters above, the plant bears, as do many violets, 

 cleistogamous flowers at its base ; those insignificant ones which make no 

 great showing and yet carry on their shoulders much of the responsibility 

 of continuing their race. 



THE FLAX FAMILY. 



Linacecu, 



Mostly herbs with si7nple, opposite, or alternate, entire leaves and 

 perfect, regular flowers which grow iii racemes, cymes, or panicles ; their 

 parts beitig i?i divisions of fours, or fives a?id their fila7fie?its monodel- 

 phous at the bases. 



FLORIDA YELLOW FLAX. 



Lhium Floridanum. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Flax. Yelloiv. Scentless. Florida to Louisiana 7torthward. June-August. 



Flowers : small ; growing in a much-branched corymbose inflorescence. Calyx: 

 persistent with five pointed sepals. Petals : ^\ie Stafuens : five. Styles : ^\&. 

 C(^7/j«/^ .• ovoid-ovate. Seeds : oxX'j. Leaves: ?,Xi\2i\\, appressed, one-half to one 

 inch long, the uppermost alternate; linear or linear-lanceolate, pointed at the 

 apex and sessile at the base; smooth. Stem : erect, slender, smooth. 



This pretty native flax with its slender, leafy stem and gay little flowers, 

 reminds us somewhat of an exquisitely tufted grass. In the far south it 



