SORREL FAMILY. Oxalldace^e. 



SORREL FAMILY. Oxalidacece. 



A small family of low herbs in our range, with trifoli- 

 ate leaves and perfect, regular flowers of five parts ; the 

 ten stamens united at the base. Fruit a five-celled cap- 

 sule. Juice sour and watery. Cross-fertilized by the 

 smaller bees and the beelike flies. 



One of the most dainty of all woodland 



plants, common in cool, damp situations. 

 Acetosella The leaf composed of three light green 

 White pink- heart-shaped leaflets which droop and 

 veind fold together after nightfall. The frail 



flowers nearly an inch broad, with five 

 notched petals, are borne singly on delicate long stems, 

 and are either pinkish white, striped with crimson lines, 

 the color deepening towai'd the centre of the blossom, 

 or white with crimson-pink lines. Fertilized by the 

 smaller bees (Halictus), and the Syrphid flies. Cleisto- 

 gamic flowers (a kind fertilized in the bud without 

 opening) are also borne on small curved stems at the 

 base of the plant. A stemless perennial about 3-4 in- 

 ches high, growing from a creeping scaly -toothed root. 

 Common in thin, damp woods from Me. to the mountains 

 of N. Car., and west on the north shore of Lake Su- 

 perior. Found at Profile Lake, Franconia Notch, N. H. 

 A native of the old world, and a most interesting flower 

 frequently introduced in the paintings of Fra Angelico 

 and Sandro Botticelli. 



Violet Wood Another most dainty woodland species 

 Sorrel common in the South, and cultivated as a 



Oxalis violacea house plant in the North. The leaves are 

 Pale magenta s i in il ar to those of the preceding species. 



The flowers are variable, sometimes white, 

 but generally light magenta (the rose purple of Dr. 

 Gray) ; they are never violet. The long flower-stalks 

 bear 3-6 or more blossoms, in contradistinction to O. 

 Acetosella which bears but one flower on a stalk. It is 

 frequented by the same class of insects which visit the 

 last. 4-8 inches high. Rocky ground and thin woods, 

 from Me., soutb, and west to the Rockies. Also among 

 the Andes, South America. 



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