POPULAR FLORA. 



135 



1. Common Flax. Root annual; leaves lance-shaped ; flower blue. Cultivated. L. usitaiissimum. 



2. Virginia Flax. Root perennial ; leaves oblong or lance-shaped ; flowers very small, yellow. Dry 



woods. L. Virginianum- 



22. WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. Order OXALIDACEiE. 



Small herbs with sour juice, compound leaves of three leaflets, and flowers nearly as in 

 the Flax family, but with 10 stamens, a 5-celled pod, and two or more seeds in each cell. 

 One genus, viz. 



Wood-Sorrel. Oxalis. 



Sepals, petals, and styles 5. Stamens 10; filaments united (monadelphous) at the base. Pod thin, 

 B-Iobed. Leaflets obcordate. Flowering in summer. 



1. Common W. One-flowered scape and leaves rising from a scaly rootstock, hairy; petals large, 



white with reddish veins. N. in cold and moist woods. 0. Acetosella. 



2. Violet W. Several-flowered scape and Ifeaves, from a scaly bulb ; petals violet. 0. violacea. 



3. Yellow W. Stems ascending, leafy; flowers 2 to 6 on one peduncle, small, yellow. 0, stricia. 



23. GERANIUM FAMILY. Order GERANIACEiE. 



Herbs or small shrubs, with scented leaves, having stipules, the lower ones opposite. 



Roots astringent. Sepals 

 5, overlapping. Petals 

 5. Stamens 10, but part 

 of them in some cases 

 'without anthers : fila- 

 ments commonly united 

 at the bottom. Pistils 

 5 grown into one, that 

 is, all united to a long 

 beak of the receptacle 

 (except the 5 stigmas) ; 

 and when the fruit is 

 ripe the styles split away 

 from the beak and curl 



331. LeaT, and 332. Flowers of Wild Ger&nium. 

 335. Seed. 336 Same, cut acroBB. 



up or twist, carrying 

 with them the five lit- 



333 

 333. BtameDB and pistil 334. Fruit bunting. 



tie one-seeded pods, as 

 shown in Fig. 334. — There are three genera, viz. Geranium or Cranesbill ; Erobium, 

 which differs in having only 5 stamens with anthers, and the fruit-bearing styles bearded 

 inside ; and Pelargonium, which has the corolla more or less irregular, generally 7 stamens 

 with anthers, &c. The latter are the House Geraniums, from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 of several species and many varieties. We describe only the wild species of true 



