130 THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN 
leaflets, as in the leaves of the common clover. The leaflets are of a thick fleshy succulent texture, and being 
consequently very heavy, they generally droop ; and thus each leaf, at a little distance, looks something like a 
butterfly. There is no green stem ; but the leaves spring from a kind of bulb, enveloped in a mass of chafiy scales, 
so as to look like the scaly bulb of a small lily ; from this bulb the plant sends down one or more strong fusiform 
roots, usually about four inches long and one inch in thickness, which are good to eat. To prepare them, they 
are washed and picked, and then simmered in water, with a little salt in it. When tender, they are served with 
melted butter and toast like asparagus, or with white sauce like scorzonera, and in taste greatly resemble that 
vegetable. The leaves are used as a substitute for sorrel and in salad j and the flowers are put into salads, not 
only for their taste, which is agreeably acid, but that their brilliant crimson may relieve the mass of green. The 
plant flowers freely ; and, from its neat, compact growth, it is sometimes used for garden edgings. It is 
propagated by little scaly bulbs or offsets, which form by the side of the larger bulb, and round the collar of the 
plant. These bulbs should be pulled off when the fusiform roots are taken up in October for use, and kept dry 
and secure from frost in sand till April, when they should be planted in a very sandy soil enriched with vegetable 
mould, in drills two inches deep and seven inches apart, and the bulbs five inches apart. As the bulbs, however, 
are generally very small, two or three may be planted together, keeping the tufts thus formed five inches apart. 
The young plants should be regularly watered if the weather be very dry ; and some gardeners water them with 
liquid manure (from cow-dung) just before they form their flower-buds. If grown in a light rich soil, and never 
suffered to become too dry, these plants will remain in flower from the latter end of May till October. In most 
parts of England they may be left in the ground all the year without protection, when the fusiform roots are 
not taken up as an article of food ; but in cold situations, or in long severe frosts without snow, the plants should 
have a mat thrown over them. The tubers, when taken up, may be kept like potatoes. 0. Deppei is a native of 
Mexico, whence it was introduced in 1827 ; but it was very little noticed till about 1840, when some papers 
respecting it, which had appeared in the German horticultural works, were translated and republished in England. 
Its uses and mode of culture are, however, given in an account of the Botanic Garden at Berlin, published in the 
Gardener's Magazine for 1836, p. 302. The specific name of Deppei is from Mr. Deppe, a German naturalist, 
who first discovered the plant in Mexico, 
7— OXALIS BOWIEI, AH. MR. BOWIE'S OXALIS. 
Engravings. — Bot. Reg. t. 1585 ; Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 1782 ; and i Specific CHARiCTEn. — Stemless. Leaflets three, roundish, cordate, 
OUT Jig. 1 in Plate 32. | emarginate. Peduncles about the length of the leaves, umbelliferous. 
Description, &c. — This is decidedly the handsomest of all the species. The flowers are large, and of a most 
brilliant rose colour ; they are also produced in such abundance as to have a most brilliant effect in the flower- 
garden. During a visit to Devonshire in September 1842, I frequently saw large tufts of this beautiful species 
in the borders of the flower-gardens, and it is impossible to describe the splendid effect they produced. "When 
planted in the open ground, the plants flower in September and October ; but by potting them and keeping them 
quite dry so as to allow them about a fortnight's rest at Midsummer, or later, and then placing them in a stove, 
to start them, as the gardeners call it, the plants may be made to flower freely, and at any season required, 
according to the time when they are given their period of rest. When the flower-buds are once formed, they may 
be removed to a cooler temperature to flower. This beautiful species is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, 
whence it was introduced in 1824 ; and it and the following species are the only Cape kinds of Oxalis that 
will flower in the open air. 
