THE SPECIES OF OXALIS NOW WILD 
IN INDIA. 
BY 
C. C. CALDER 
INTRODUCTION 
T HE genus Osalis was defined by Linnaeus in his first edition of 
the Genera Plantar um in 1737. Since then steady increase in 
the number of its species has brought the total to about 300 at present. 
Only four or five species are almost cosmopolitan, while the majority of 
the remainder are restricted to South Africa, including Madagascar, 
and to tropical and subtropical America. Very few occur in Asia, 
Europe, Australia, Tropical Africa and North America. Within the 
limits of British India only' three species were hitherto known to be 
wild, but during the last few years several exotic species have established 
themselves so thoroughly iu many favourable situations that the 
following attempt to give a concise account of all the species now 
found wild has been rendered necessary. 
Of the following nine species of Oxalis described below as being 
now well-established in India, four are tropical American, two South 
African, one North temperate, one Himalayan and the last cosmopolitan. 
Strictly speaking then, only one species is indigenous to India. 
The paper consists of three parts : — 1st, an artificial key to facilitate 
the recognition of species, both indigenous and non-indigenous ; 2nd, 
a history and description of all the species so far known to be wild ; 
3rd, the intra»Indian distribution of the speoies as revealed by existing 
examples in the Calcutta Herbarium. 
Tne synonymy cited has been based on that maintained in the Index 
Kewensis. 
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325 
