The Canadian Horticulturist. 



381 



T\}t harder) ar)d La^jOQ. 



THE OXALIS. 



MONG the most popular window plants is the Oxalis, 

 commonly called Shamrock. This latter name is one which 

 was first given to one of the varieties of oxalis in Ireland, 

 when adopted as the national emblem. The legend is that 

 St. Patrick once plucked one of its tripartite leaves to use 

 in illustrating the doctrine of the Trinity. The term 

 shamrock has also' been given to the white clover and black 

 medic ; but when we speak of the shamrock, as a house 

 plant, we usually refer to some variety of the oxalis. This plant belongs, botani- 

 cally speaking, to the Wood Sorrel family, and is very closely allied to the gera- 

 niums. The name is derived from the Greek oxys, acid, which refers to the 

 taste of the leaves, a characteristic that is very familiar to all Canadian boys and 

 girls, who so often gather it to eat, and, improperly, call it " sheep's sorrel." 



Our readers may perhaps be surprised to know how large a family the Oxalida- 

 ceae is, there being some two hundred and twenty species known. Most of them, 

 however, are inhabitants of the tropics ; of these, about one hundred are in culti- 

 vation in greenhouses, and are much valued for their constancy of bloom. Only 

 two or three, out of all this number of varieties, are hardy enough to be grown 

 out-doors in our climate. Two are natives of Ontario, namely, O. Acetosella, 



Fig. 63 — Collectiom of Oxalis. 



