102 0\-ALiDAnK,G. [Oxalis. 



Order XX. OXALIDACEiE, DC. 



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

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

 6 inner ones oiiposite 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, on bursting open, pro- 

 jects the seed to a distance. Embryo in a cartilaginous albumen, 

 with its radicle towards the hiluni. — Mostly herbs, with compound 

 acid leaves ; some of them highly sensitive." — Br. Fl. 



I. Oxalis, Linn. Wood-sorrel. 



" Calyx not bracteated at the base. Fdnments slightly com- 

 bined below. Capsnle angular, 5-celled. Seeds with an elastic 

 integument." — Br. Fl. 



1. 0. Acetosella, L. Common Wood-sorrel. Stemless, leaves 

 all radical ternate, leaflets inversely heart-shaped hairj', scapes 

 single-flowered longer than the leafstalks, root scaty creeping. 

 Br. Fl. p. 87. E. B. t. 763. 



In moist woods, groves and damp shady places, about the roots and stumps of 

 moss-grown or decayed tiees, and in alder-thickets ; not very general. Fl. April, 

 May. U. 



E. Med. — In St. John's Wood and elsewhere about Ryde, occasionally. By 

 Qunrr Abbey, sparingly. Boggy thickets at the extremity of Apse Castle towards 

 Ninham, and at America. Abundant in the vale of Newchurch, in dark boggy 

 thickets. 



W. Med. — Little Standen Wood, near Newport. 



A tender succulent plant, the leaf- and flower-stalks subdiaphanous and usually 

 tinged uilh pale red or purple. Root consisting,' of tufis of thickly interwoven, 

 branched, capillary, pale brown fibres, emitted at intervals from the long, horizon- 

 tally creeping, filiform rhizoma, which enlarijes at short distances into knotty por- 

 tions, consisting of imbricated, fleshy, bulb-like, conical protuberances flattened on 

 the upper side and ii'tcn truncated at top, and which are the enlarged persistent 

 bases of the leafstalks of former seasons. Leaves all radical, in fascicles from the 

 apex of a former year's shoots or froin fresh ones, ternate, orbicular in circum- 

 scription, of a beautiful tender bright green above, grayish or whitish underneath, 

 or sufl'used with violet-purple, various in size, from about 1 to 2^ inches across ; 

 leaflets of a thin, flaccid and somewhat moist texture, roundish obcordate or wider 

 than long, subcuneale at base, shallowly eniarginate, all byt quite sessile, strongly 

 and almost elastically deflexed alter gathering or at night, sprinkled on both sides 

 with scattered hairs, with which the margins are slightly ciliated. Petioles lax, 

 various (from 2 to 3 or 4 inches) in length, subtereie, slightly channelled above, 

 appearing jointed on the enlarged, conical, somewhul hairy, fleshy and persistent 

 base, and retained on it by a strong white central chord, flexuose, reddish or pur- 

 plish like the flower-stalks, and clothed as are those with scattered silky hairs, most 

 numerously at the top and bottom, often nearly glabrous. Scape springing from 

 the concave enlarged bases of the leafstalks, but not itself enlarged below, 1, 2 or 



