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Oralis.'] . XXTI. OXALIDACE^. ^7 



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sessile, distinct or united. FruU a capsule bursting with 5 



elastic valves, or succulent and indehiscent. Seeds solitary or 



numerous, suspended. Albumen 0. Embryo straight with 



radicle superior. — Herbaceous and succulent plants^ without 

 stipules. 



1. Impatiens Li7in. Balsam. 



Flowers of apparently 4 sepals and 2 petals. Capsule of 5 

 elastic valves. — Kame (impatient) from the sudden openino- of 

 the valves of the capsule, when the fruit is touched. ^ 



^ 1. L "" Noli-me-tdngere L. (^/eZZow? _S. or Touch-me-not); 

 joints of the stem swelling, leaves ovate serrate petiolate, 

 peduncles solitary many-flowered, spur of calyx loosely recurved 

 and entire at the point. JE. B. t. 937. 



Moist shady woods in Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Lancashire, and 

 some other counties in England and Wales; also at Castlemilk near 

 Glasgow; — but perhaps only escaped from cultivation or planted. 

 0. 7—9. — Stem generally .1 ft. high, rounded, succulent, fragile. 

 Flowers large, yellow, spotted with orange. Capsule bursting elasti- 



cally and scattering its seecTs with considerable force; the valves are 

 then spirally twisted. 



[I.fulva Nutt, of N. America grows on the banks of the Wey, the 

 Basingstoke Canal, and the Thames, from Guildford and Woking 

 Heath to Chiswick. The spur of the calyx is notched at the poinr, 

 and so closely reflexcd as to be pressed against the sepals. E. B. S. 



Ord. XXII. OXALID ACE M De Cand. 



Flowers regular. Sepals 5, persistent. Petals 5, equal, often 

 cohering at the base and twisted in sestivation. Stamens 10, 

 the 5 umer ones opposite the petals and longer than the others ; 

 anthers distinct, 2-celled. Ovary 1, 5-celled. Styles 5. Stigmas 

 usually capitate or somewhat bifid. Fruit a capsule with 5 or 

 10 valves, or indehiscent. Seeds attached to the axis, usually 

 with an elastic fleshy outer integument, which, ou burstino- 

 open, projects the seed to a distance. Embryo in a carti^ 

 lagmous albumen, with its radicle towards the hilum. — Mostly 

 herbs, with compound acid leaves ; some of them highly sensi- 

 ^^J%~ ^T^^^ ^cetosella abounds in oxalic acid. O. crenata 

 01 i eru aflbrds a salad in its leaves, and its tubers are eaten 

 as potatoes, but they are not worth a place in a European 

 Kitchen-garden. ^ 



1. O'xALis ZiVm. Wood-Sorrel. 



Cal not bracteated at the base. Filaments slightly combined 



