OX'ALIS ARTICULA'TA. 
JOINTED-EOOTED WOOD-SORREL. 
Clasa-. 
UECANDRIA. 
Order. 
PENTAGVNIA. 
Natural Order. 
OXALIDACEjE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Mon.Video. 
18 inches. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
o 
00 
No. 1013. 
This extensive genus of j^lants well sujiports the 
character which its name indicates — shai’p or sour. 
The word is founded on the Greek oxys. 
This is a pretty gay-flowering Oxalis, possessing 
all the prominent characteristics of its genus, the 
most general of which is trifoliate leaves. This 
formation of foliage, is usually connected with that 
peculiarity which Linneus calls the sleep of plants. 
“ This,” says Professor Henslow, “consists in the 
periodic change in the position of an entire leaf, 
or of the several leaflets of which a compound leaf 
is formed. The petioles, or leaf-stalks, either bend 
upwards or downwards, so that the flattened sur- 
face or limb of the leaf is elevated or deju’essed. 
There are about a dozen difierent modifications in 
the manner in which the leaves are inclined to the 
stalks on which they gi’ow; some raise their leaf- 
lets so that their upper surfaces are brought into 
contact, and others depress them so that their 
under surfaces meet together. ” 
This latter phenomenon is well exhibited by our 
present plant, and many others of the genus ; and 
by none more beautifully than our little native 
254 . 
