344 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and Malta, as well as in Zante, near Smyrna, in Egypt and Algeria. In 

 his description he says: — " Stylis distinctis, fere horizontalibus, capsula 

 . . . seminibus . . .," stating that he has never seen the fruit. 



Mr. John Bali described this species in 1878 under the name 0. sericea 

 (" Spicilegium Floras Maroccana?," "Journ. Linn. Soc," Bot. vol. xvi. 

 p. 388), and alludes to the three supposed species — 0. sericea, L. fil., 

 0. cernua, Thunb., and 0. compressa, Jacq.— as being only one, inasmuch 

 as these three are but the short-styled, mid-styled, and long-styled forms. 

 Since he records the plant himself as 0. sericea, this implies that it is 

 the short-styled form which grows near the city of Tangier. This and 

 the double form often occur there. Mr. Ball quotes the distribution 

 given above, and adds:— "in insulis Canariensibus,* Madeira ... in 

 agro Tingitano et alibi in Africa boreali." 



The last to allude to it, that I am aware of, are Ascherson and 

 Schweinfurth. In the list of plants of " Middle North Africa " (" Kufra," 

 p. 513, 1881), the former describes it as growing in Cyrenaica, and regards 

 it as a remarkable fact in geographical botany that this species should 

 have two sources, for he appears to regard it as indigenous.! In their 

 "Illustration de la Flore d'Egypte " (1889), these joint authors- simply 

 record it as naturalized at Cairo and Esneh. 



Having had an opportunity of examining Oxalis cernua in the Maltese 

 Islands in 1890 — as it is most abundant in Malta and Gozo, but does not 

 occur in Salmone— and again in Egypt in 1891, since it flowers from 

 November to April, I found, as stated, that the single form was invariably 

 short-styled, the double form being common in Malta, but not nearly so 

 abundant as the single. Neither kind bears any fruit either in Malta or 

 Egypt as far as I could discover. 



The last place where I have seen it is Cannes, in 1892. I am informed 

 by Dr. Battersby, of that town, that it has apparently decreased of late 

 years. A single plant in the garden of M. A. Constant at Golf Juan was 

 accidentally introduced with some palms, but from what locality it was 

 not known. It was the short-styled form, as usual. It is not mentioned 

 in M. A. Bisso's "Flore de Nice," 1844; but M. Ardoino, in his "Flore 

 du Departement des Alpes-Maritimes," 1879, says : — " Cette plante du 

 Cap de Bonne-Esperance que j'avais souvent remarquee dans les sentiers 

 pierreux autour de Monaco, et qui me paraissait echappee des jardins, 

 vient d'etre retrouvee a Menton, a Villefranche, a Nice et k Cannes. 

 Elle est en train de se naturaliser chez nous." 



In the Botanic Garden attached to the School of Medicine in Cairo, 

 I found Oxalis cernua cultivated in a pot, and a stray plant was growing 



* It does not appear to have reached the Canaries before the year 1840, for it is 

 not mentioned by Webb and Berthelot in their Histoire Naturelle des lies Canaries. 

 According to Lowe only the double form is found at Madeira (Manual of the Flora 

 of Madeira, <&c, p. 100). The source of it in these islands was probably direct from 

 the Cape of Good Hope itself, and quite independent of the Maltese origin. 



In De Candolle's Prodromus, vol. i. p. 696, Oxalis cernua is described " stylis 

 brevissimis," which sesms to imply that this author also only knew of the short- 

 styled form. 



t " Das Yorkommen dieser Cappflanze, welche seit mehrern Decennien auf Cul- 

 turboden des Mittelmeergebietes sich vielfach eingebiirgert hat (ich sah sie in 

 Sardinien. Unter- und selbst Obenigypten zu Esneh !!), an offenbar urspriinglichen 

 Fundorten unsers Gebietes ist eine pnanzengeographisch sehr merkwiirdige That- 

 sache, da derartige Uebereinstimmungen zwischen Nord- und Sudafrika selten sind." 



