SPECIES OF OXALIS NOW WILD IN INDIA. 
m 
Oxalis corniculata is the most widely distributed member of the 
genus. It was established by Linnaeus in the first edition of the 
Species Plantarum and, subsequent to its description there, met the earli- 
est botanical exploration in most parts of the world. Recently B. L. 
Robinson in the Journal of Botany, Yob XLIV, p. 386, has shown 
that the Linnean species was composite. Indian representatives of the 
plant show very considerable variation but we have followed the lead 
of Hooker's '‘Flora Novse-Zelandiae ” in not attempting to raise 
specific differences. Within India it is the best known member of the 
group and from notes on sheets would appeaf to be found most 
frequently at elevations varying between three and six thousand feet. 
Plate V. — 1, plant, nat. size; 2, calyx x 20; 3, corolla x 15; 4, 
androecium X 10; 5, stamen x 20; 6, gynaeccum (young state) X 10; 
7, style x 20. 
6. Oxalis pubescens H. B. & K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. v, 240. 
Oxalis tifida Willd. ex Zucc. in Denksch. Akad. Muench. ix, (1828-24), 
162. 
Oxalis Cummingii Herb, in Bot. Reg. t. 1545. 
A small procumbent herb, rarely erect bulbless, with fibrous roots 
and stem rooting at the nodes. Leaves elongated, stipules oblong, acute, 
5 mm. long, hairy, scarious ; petioles 37-6'4 cm. long, sparsely 
hairy ; leaflets 3, unequal, medial leaflet obcordate, cuneate at 
the base, 2*2 cm. long, 1*9 cm. broad, very sparsely hairy above, 
ad pressed hairy below, membranaceous. Peduncles very long, solitary, 
axillary, 15-17 cm. long, arising chiefly towards the apices of the stems. 
Cymes umbelliform with irregular branches having the flowers arranged 
in a pseudo-raceme. Bracts minute, subulate, 2-3 mm. lomr, pubescent. 
Flowers small, orange-yellow, of the same size as in O. corniculata ; 
pcdunolo hairy, 5-7 mm. long. Sepals 5, lanceolate, acute, 4 mm. long, 
1 mm. broad, pubescent, membranaceous, persistent. Petals 5, twice as long 
as the sepals, 8 mm long, connate in the middle, bases and apices free. 
Stamens 10, 5 long, 5 short, exactly as in O. corniculata , quite glabrous. 
Ovary sessile, oblong but tapering towards the top, glabrous, 5-lobed 
and 5-celled ; styles 5, erect, capillary, pubescent ; stigmas 5> subcapitate 
and distinctly 1 Q-rayed . 
In their great South American expedition 1799-1804 Humboldt 
and Bonpland collected this with other species of the same genus in the 
rich oxalidaceous country of Peru. It was not published until some twenty 
years later when it figured in their Nova Genera et Species Plantarum 
1821. Progel (1872-71) includes it in his account of the Oxalidacese (Flora 
Brazilieneis) but cites it as belonging to the Andes and extra-Brazilian. 
