OXALIDACEAE. 575 



and not as deeply cleft, generally only to just below the middle, into 7-1 1 obovate 

 or cuneate lobes, which are 3-5 -toothed at the apex; flowers dark-purple, 6-10 mm. 

 broad; sepals obtusish, not awned; capsule-lobes distinctly marked with trans- 

 verse wrinkles; beak about 1 cm. long, sparingly pubescent. In waste places, 

 Me. to Penn., N. Y.. Ohio and Ont. Also in Wash, and Vancouver. Fugitive 

 from Europe. May-Sept. 



2. ERODIUM L'Her. 



Herbs, generally with jointed nodes, opposite or alternate stipulate leaves, and 

 axillary umbellate nearly regular flowers. Sepals 5, imbricated. Petals, 5, hy- 

 pogynous, imbricated, the 2 upper slightly smaller. Glands 5. Anther-bearing 

 stamens 5. alternating with as many sterile filaments. Ovary 5-lobed, 5-celled, 

 beaked by the united styles, the beak terminating in 5 stigmas; ovules 2 in each 

 cavity. Capsule-lobes i-seeded, the styles elastically dehiscent and coiled spirally 

 at maturity, villous-bearded on the inner side. Seeds not reticulate. [Greek, a 

 heron, from the resemblance of the truit to its beak and bill.] About 60 species, 

 widely distributed in temperate and warm regions. There are three native species 

 in the southwest; several exotic ones have been collected on ballast at the seaports. 



I. Erodium cicutarium (L.) L'Her. Hemlock Stork's-bill or Heron's- 

 bill. Alfilaria. (I. F. f. 2249.) Annual, tufted, villous-pubescent, somewhat 

 viscid, 1.5-3 dm. high. Basal and lower leaves 7.5-18 cm. long, 1.25-2.5 cm. 

 wide, pinnate, the segments finely pinnatifid; peduncles generally longer than the 

 leaves, umbellately 2- 12 -flowered; flowers purple or pink, 8-10 mm. broad; sepals 

 acute, villous, about equalling the entire petals; carpels hairy; beak 1.25-3.75 cm. 

 long, its divisions spirally coiled when ripe. Waste places and fields, N. S., Ont., 

 X. J.. X. Eng., Penn. and Mich., and very abundant from Tex. to Ore. Adven- 

 tive from Europe, in our area. A common weed in the Old World. April-Sept. 



Erodium moschatum Willd., reported from Ont., Mass. and Me., has much broader 

 serrate or incised leaf-segments. 



Family 2. OXALIDACEAE Lindl.* 

 Wood-sorrel Family. 



Leafy-stemmed or acaulescent herbs, or rarely shrubs, often with 

 rootstocks or scaly bulbs, the sap sour. Leaves mostly palmately 3- 

 foliolate, in some exotic species pinnate, or entire and peltate ; stipules 

 commonly present as scarious expansions of the petiole-bases ; leaflets 

 mostly obcordate. Flowers perfect, in umbel-like or forking cymes, or 

 sometimes solitary ; peduncles mostly long. Sepals 5, often unequal. 

 Petals 5, white, pink, purple or yellow. Stamens 10-15. Ovary 5-celled, 

 5-lobed ; styles united, or distinct ; ovules 2-many in each cavity ; fruit 

 a loculicidal globose or columnar capsule, rarely baccate. Embryo 

 straight, in fleshy endosperm. About 7 genera and 280 species, chiefly 

 of tropical distribution. 



1. OXALIS L. 



Annual or perennial, caulescent or acaulescent. often bulbous herbs, with alter- 

 nate, mostly digitately compound leaves (3-foliolate in our species) and axillary, 

 i-several- flowered peduncles. Flowers regular, often heterogenous. Sepals 5, 

 imbricated. Petals 5. Stamens 10. monude'phous at base, 5 longer and 5 shorter, 

 all anther-bearing. Ovary 5-celled; ovules several in each cavity; styles 5. sepa- 

 rate, persistent, stigmas terminal. Capsule loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds 2 or 

 more in each cavity, anatropous, with a loose aril-like dehiscent outer coat. 

 [Greek, sour, from the acid juice.] About 250 species, mostly natives of warm or 

 tropical regions. Besides the following, some 10 others occur in the Southern and 

 Western States. 



♦Contributed by Dr. John K. Small. 



