WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. Oxalidaceae. 
WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. Oxalidaceae. 
Not a large family, mostly tropical. Ours are low herbs, 
with sour juice, often with rootstocks or scaly bulbs; 
leaves with three or several leaflets; flowers perfect; sepals 
five, often unequal; petals five, stamens ten to fifteen; 
ovary superior, five-celled, the five styles usually separate; 
fruit a capsule, containing several or many seeds. By 
some botanists this is merged in the Geranium Family. 
There are many kinds of Oxalis. The Greek name 
means “‘sour,’’ in allusion to the sour taste of these plants, 
which contain oxalic acid. The leaves are alternate, at 
nightfall the leaflets droop and fold together; the stamens 
are ten, five long and five short, all with anthers, with 
filaments broadened and united at base. 
A pretty little plant, a few inches tall, 
Yellow Wood- = more or less downy all over, with very 
sorrel 
Oxalis slender, reddish, branching stems and 
corniculata light green leaves, about an inch across 
Yellow and thin in texture. The flowers are 
Spring, summer, 
autumn 
Southwest 
over half an inch across, with clear yellow 
petals, often tinged with pale red on the 
outside, yellow anthers and a green pistil. 
The capsules are long and downy. 
One of the most attractive of our wood- 
Redwood Sorrel i 
ee es asad plants. The succulent, hairy, red- 
Oxalis Oregana 
White, pink dish flower-stalks, about six inches tall, 
Spring with two small bracts near the top, spring 
Cal., Oreg., 
Wash. trom a clump of root-leaves. The larger 
leaves are three inches across, with long leaf-stalks, pale 
and hairy on the under side, rich green on the upper, each 
leaflet marked with an irregular blotch of pale green. The 
younger leaves are lighter green than the older ones and in 
the bud are neatly folded together, the middle leaflet inside 
the other two. The léaflets fold back, when it is either too 
hot or too cold to suit the plant. The delicate flowers are 
about an inch and a half across, white, pale pink, or rose- 
color, often veined with deeper color and with a spot of 
yellow at the base of each petal, and well set off by the 
foliage, which makes patches of rich and variegated green 
in dense forest shade. 
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