336 
RECORDS OF THE BOTANICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 
glabrous ; inner scales fleshy, light-brown. Petioles slender, 
13-22 cm. long, puberulous. Leaves trifoliolate with almost sessile 
leaflets ; leaflets equal, broadly deltoid, sub-bilobed with lobes divergent 
and acute, broadly but distinctly cuneate at the base, 1*4 cm. long, 
3 cm. broad at the broadest part, thin, membranaceous ; margin undu- 
late ; secondary nerves 2 pairs, divaricate from the midrib at the base, 
straight but arching in the end towards it. Scapes 1 or 2, filiform, 
puberulous, 12-25 cm. long; umbels 5-6-flowered, bracteate; bracts 
minute, involuorate, less than 1 mm. in length, persistent. Flower 
pedicelled, 8-9 mm. long ; pedicels slender, somewhat unequal, *6-1*2 
cm. long, puberulous. Sepals 5, elliptic-oblong, equal, 4 mm. long, 
1*5 mm. broad, glabrous* distinctly 5-nerved, persistent, biglandular 
towards the apex; glands narrow, contiguous, not divergent. Petals 
5, violet; united up to a fourth of their length (corolla infundibnliform) , 
with very short free clawg and rounded apices, 1 cm. long. Stamens 
10, alternately longer and shorter, united below into a membranous cup ; 
filaments with very short ascending bristles, longer 4 mm. long, shorter 
2 mm. long; anthers oblong. Ovary elongate, almost 5-lobed, 2*5 mm. 
long, glabrous ; styles 5, distinct, glabrous, bent outwards ; stigmas 5, 
discoid, with wavy margins. Ovules 4 in each cell, elliptic. 
This species belongs to the indigenous flora of Mexico, from 
which country it was first introduced to science by Humboldt Bonpland 
and Kunth in their Nova Genera et Species Plantarum 1821-22. 
Progel in the Flora Braziliensis (1872) claims its presence in the chief 
American home of Oxalis but mentions its origin as extra-Brazilian. 
Reiche (Flore de Chile) does not know it from that country but it 
would appear to be present to some extent in the continent north of 
Mexico (Rose U. S. Nat. Herb. Contrib. Yol. X. 1906 p. 113). The 
0. latifolia described by Trelease from several of fhe more northern 
states has, however, now been referred to 0. divergent var. amplifolia . 
Although quite a showy Oxalis it does not appear to be generally 
cultivated in greenhouses in Europe. Like nearly all the American 
species it is absent from the Cape flora. Apart from European garden 
records the only mention we have of O t latifolia outside America 
appears in a Java horticultural list dated 1866 but this throws no light 
on how the plant throve at Buitenzorg (Java) or on the question of 
its possible naturalisation there. An examination of herbarium material 
brings to light the interesting fact that this species has begun to 
wander from gardens in several localities throughout India. Nearly 
fifty years ago Kurz noted and collected it as a weed at Sibpur.- Schlick 
had it from- Simla, King in 1869 from Mussoorie and Saxton No. 949 
quite recently from the same locality. More recently it has been 
