Genus i. 



WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. 



I. Oxalis Acetosella L. White or True 

 Wood-sorrel. Alleluia. Fig. 2663. 



Oxalis Acetosella L. Sp. PI. 433. 1753. 



Perennial by a scaly nearly unbranched root- 

 stock, acaulescent, 2'-6' high, pubescent with 

 scattered brownish hairs. Leaves 3-6, long-petioled ; 

 petioles jointed and dilated at the base; leaflets 

 obcordate, wider than long; scapes 1-3, slightly 

 longer than the leaves, i-flowered, 2-bracted above 

 the middle ; flowers broadly campanulate, about V 

 long; sepals obtusish ; petals white or pink, veined 

 with deep pink, emarginate or entire, 3-4 times as 

 long as the calyx; capsule subglobose, i"-2" long, 

 glabrous, its cavities 1-2-seeded; seeds ovoid, 

 longitudinally grooved. 



In cold damp woods, Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan, 

 the mountains of North Carolina, and the north 

 shore of Lake Superior. Cleistogene flowers are borne on recurved scapes at the base of the plant. 

 Native also in Europe, Asia and northern Africa. Sleeping beauty. Ladies'- or sleeping clover. 

 Sheep-sorrel. Cuckoo-flower. Old names, wood-sower or wood-sour, cuckoo's meat, sour trefoil, 

 stub-wort, shamrock, hearts, sour-trifoly. Yields the druggists' " Salt of Lemons." May-July. 



2. lONOXALIS Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 665. 1903. 

 Perennial acaulescent herbs, with scaly bulbs. Leaves basal, few or many together, 

 with the petioles dilated at the base, palmately 3-10-foliolate ; leaflets notched at the apex, 

 with short or elongated lobes, usually with orange tubercles in each sinus, commonly droop- 

 ing. Scapes erect, solitary or clustered, usually topped by umbel-like cymes. Flowers per- 

 fect, heterogonous. Sepals S, with tubercles at the apex. Petals 5, rose-purple, rose-violet 

 or white, much longer than the sepals, commonly rounded at the apex. Stamens 10 : filaments 

 usually pubescent, united at the base. Capsule sometimes elongated, 5-ceIled. Seeds wrinkled, 

 grooved or tubercled. [Greek, purple-oxalis.] 



About 120 species, natives of North and South Amer- 

 ica, most abundant in continental tropical America. 

 Type species : lonoxalis violacea (L.) Small. 



lonoxalis violacea (L.) Small. 

 Wood-sorrel. Fig. 2664. 



Violet 



Oxalis violacea L. Sp. PI. 434. 1753. 



lonoxalis violacea Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 665. 1903. 



Perennial from a brownish bulb with ciliate scales, 

 acaulescent, 4-9' high, nearly or quite glabrous. 

 Leaves generally 4-8, long and slender-petioled, 

 about i' wide ; leaflets obcordate, minutely reticu- 

 lated, the midrib sometimes sparingly hairy; scapes 

 several, commonly exceeding the leaves, umbellately 

 3-12-flowered; pedicels slender; flowers 8"-io" long, 

 heterogonous ; sepals obtuse ; petals rose-purple, 

 rarely white, lighter toward the base, obtuse or trun- 

 cate, 3 times as long as the sepals ; capsule ovoid, 2" 

 in diameter; cavities 2-3-seeded; seeds flattened, 

 rugose-tuberculate. 



In woods, Massachusetts to Minnesota and South 

 Dakota, south to Florida and Texas. Purple wood-sorrel. 

 Sheep-sorrel. May-June. 



3. XANTHOXALIS Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 666. 1903. 



Annual or perennial caulescent herbs, with descending or horizontal rootstocks. Stems 

 sometimes woody at the base. Leaves alternate, with the stipules obsolete or appearing as 

 narrow dilations at the base of the petiole, palmately 3-foliolate; leaflets broadly obcordate, 

 usually inequilateral, nearly sessile or rarely stalked, soinetimes sensitive. Flowers perfect, 

 heterogonous or homogenous. Sepals 5, narrow, imbricated. Corolla yellow, sometimes with 

 a darker ej'e. Petals 5, surpassing the sepals, rounded or notched at. the apex. Stamens 10: 

 filaments glabrous or the longer ciliate. Capsule more or less elongated, columnar or nar- 

 rowed upward, angled, 5-celled. Seeds several in each cavity, transversely ridged or tuber- 

 culate by broken ridges. [Greek, yellow-oxalis.] 



About 50 species, of wide geographic distribution. Type species : Xanthoxylis corniculata 

 (L.) Small. 



