GERANIACE^l. 



171 



III. OXALIS. OXALIS. 



Herbs, either annual, or with a tuberous or creeping, perennial root- 

 stock, and, in European species, palmately trifoliate, long-stalked 

 leaves. Elowers solitary, or several in an umbel, on radical or axillary 

 peduncles. Sepals 5. Petals 5. Stamens 10. Ovary angular, not 

 beaked, 5-celled, with several ovules in each cell. Styles 5, short, 

 scarcely united at the base. Capsule with 5 angles, opening in as 

 many valves. 



A very numerous genus, widely diffused over the temperate and 

 hotter regions of the globe. A few tropical species have entire or pin- 

 nate leaves, and are occasionally undershrubs ; but the great mass of 

 the genus, like the few European species, are remarkable for their 

 leaves, with 3 obovate leaflets like those of a Clover. 



Flowers white. Peduncles radical, 1-flowered 1. Sorrel O. 



Flowers small, yellow. Stem elongated. Peduncles axillary 2. Procumbent O. 



Many exotic species, with yellow or reddish flowers, have at various 

 times been cultivated, either in our flower-gardens, or, for their tu- 

 berous rootstocks, as esculents. 



1. Sorrel Oxalis. Oxalis Acetosella, Linn. (Fig. 214.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 762. Wood-sorrel.) 



Hootstock shortly creeping, slender, 

 but often knotted with thickened scales. 

 Leaves radical, with long stalks, and 3 

 obovate, delicately green leaflets, with a 

 slightly acid flavour. Peduncles radical, 

 long and slender, bearing a single/rather 

 large white flower, and 2 small bracts, 

 about halfway up. Sepals small, ovate, 

 obtuse, thin. Petals obovate, about 6 

 lines long. Capsule ovoid, with 2 shin- 

 ing black seeds in each cell. 



In woods, throughout Europe, Rus- 

 sian and central Asia, and northern 

 America. Abundant in Britain. Fl. early 

 spring. This is the original of the Irish 

 Shamrock, although that emblem is now 

 represented by the white Clover. 



Fig. 214. 



