104 geraniAcejE 



with broadly-ovate, obtuse stipules ; flmvers pink. — Waste places ; 

 rare, not indigenous inland. — Fl. June, July. Annual. 



3. E. tnaritimum (Sea stork's-bill).— A small plant, roughish, 

 with minute hairs, and sending out several leafy stems, which lie 

 remarkably close to the ground ; the leaves are not pinnate, as in 

 the other British species, but ovate, cordate, and crenately lobed ; 

 and the peduncles bear one or two minute, generally apetalous, 

 flowers. — Sandy places near the sea, especially in the west of 

 England ; rare. Like many other seaside plants, it is not un- 

 frequently met with in inland, mountainous districts, occurring 

 plentifully on Dartmoor, in Devonshire, many miles from the sea. 

 — Fl. all the summer. Perennial. 



3. 6xalis (Wood-sorrel). — Acid herbs with sensitive, ternate 

 leaves; flowers on axillary, 1- or more-flowered peduncles, 

 polysymmetric ; sepals 5, united 

 below, imbricate ; petals 5, often 

 united below, convolute ; stamens 

 10, monadelphous, the 5 outer 

 ones shorter; ovary 5-cham- 

 bered ; styles 5 ; fruit a capsule ; 

 seeds with an elastic testa, which 

 splits hygroscopically, throwing 

 the body of the seed to a distance. 

 (Name from the Greek 0x6s , 

 acid.) 



1. O. Acetosella (Common 

 Wood - sorrel, Alleluia). — An 

 elegant little plant with a creep- 

 ing rhizome and delicate, radical, 

 trefoil, hairy leaves, which, 

 though not so sensitive as some 

 foreign species, fold together ver- 

 tically at night, being thus pro- 

 6xalis acetosella {Common Wood-sorret). tected from radiated cold. The 

 peduncle has two bracts about 

 the middle and is single-flowered ; and the flowers have obovate 

 white or lilac-veined petals. Apetalous, cleistogene seed yielding 

 flowers are produced later in the season, as in the violets (see 

 p. 64). — Woods and shady places ; common. — Fl. April — August. 

 Perennial. 



2* O. stricta, a downy plant with prostrate branched stem 

 without runners, and 2 — 3-fiowered peduncles bearing yellow 

 flowers, may be indigenous in Devon and Cornwall. — Fl. June — 

 September. Annual. 



