GEKANIACEa;. 71 



3. CARDAMINDUM, Town. (Nasturtium. Tbop^olum). Tall leafy 

 climbing plants, the succulent herbage with a pungent juice. Leaves 

 alternate, simple, extipulate. Flowers large, axillary, irregular. Sepals 

 not quite distinct; the 3 upper somewhat conjointly produced at base 

 into a long spur. Petals 5, unequal; the 3 lower often shorter. Stamens 

 8, distinct. Carpels 3, becoming large corky sulcata achenes. 



1. 0. majus (L.), Moench. Leaves orbicular, peltate, repandly lobed : 

 petals usually orange-red, 1—2 in. long, broad and obtuse, unguiculate, 

 the 3 lower fimbricate lacerate at the base of the blade: achenes J£ — % 

 in. in diameter. — Native of Peru; escaped from cultivation in many 

 places in California. 



i. FLflERKEA", Willd. Low annuals, slightly succulent, the juice 

 pungent. Leaves alternate, pinnately cleft, exstipulate. Flowers axil- 

 lary, solitary, regular, 3 — 5-merous, (all ours 5-merous, or by exception 

 4-merous). Sepals valvate in bud. Petals convolute, as many hypogy- 

 nous glands alternating with them. Stamens 10, distinct. Style 5-cleft; 

 carpels distinct, subglobose, fleshy when young, becoming soft variously 

 roughened achenes separating from their short axis. 



1. F. Douglasii (R. Br.), Baillon. Glabrous throughout, 6—18 in. 

 high: leaflets narrowly cuneiform, incisely lobed or parted: peduncles 

 2 — 4 in. long: sepals lanceolate, ^ — }£ in. long: petals yellow, % in. 

 long, obovate, emarginate; achenes obovate-pyriform, more or less 

 tuberculate. — In very wet places. April, May. 



5. OXYS, Tuurn. (Wood-Sobbbl). Herbs with sour juice (con- 

 taining oxalic acid), alternate palmately 3-foliolate leaves, and cymose or 

 umbellate regular 5-merous flowers. Sepals imbricate, distinct or 

 slightly coherent at base, persistent. Petals convolute, deciduous. 

 Stamens 10, more or less monadelphous, those opposite the petals 

 longer than the others. Ovary of 5 united carpels; styles distinct. 

 Fruit an ovoid or columnar loculicidally dehiscent capsule; the valves 

 remaining attached to the central axis; cells 2 — several-seeded. Seeds 

 pendulous, the testa aril-like, at length splitting and becoming recurved. 



1. 0. Oregana (Nutt.). Acaulescent, perennial by simple or spar- 

 ingly branched scaly rootstocks; herbage rusty-pubescent: leaves 1 ft. 

 high: leaflets broadly obcordate, ciliate, 1 in. long, 1% in. broad: scapes 

 1-flowered, shorter than the leaves, bibracteolate above the middle: petals 

 oblong obovate, emarginate, white, with purple veins: capsule ovoid. — 

 Shaded slopes in the Coast Range. 



2. 0. lutea, J. Bauh. (1651); Tourn. (1700); Lam. (1778). Oxalis 

 cormculata, L. Perennial, erect or decumbent, 3 — 10 in. high, branching, 

 pubescent: leaflets broadly obcordate: peduncles mostly 2-flowered: fl. 

 small, yellow: capsule columnar, %. in. long, densely pubescent, many- 

 seeded. — Not common in California. 



