SPECIES QF OXALIS NOW WII<D IN INDIA. 
839 
In the northern half of the new world it is present as an escape from 
gardens, in some of the Southern States (Florida) . 
From the second great home of t^he genus (S. Africa) it is as already 
noted absent, nor does it appear in the central tropical or northern semi- 
tropical African lists. In Europe it is present as an introduced garden 
plant only, unless we accept Ascherson and Graebner’s record of it as 
wild near Potsdam (Flora des Nordostdeutschen Flachlandes) . We have 
records of it in British gardens as early as 1828, but in Europe it is not 
likely ever to become hardy unless in the warmer districts of the 
Mediterranean littoral. The date of its advent in Australia is not known 
with any exactness. It was probably first introduced as a garden plant 
and its attempts at naturalisation not noted. Before the end of last 
century its presence in gardens and cultivated ground in this part of the 
world was already a serious nuisance and it still figures as one of the 
most difficult weeds to eradicate in Queensland. An interesting phase 
of its distribution is its presence in Hawai. Before 1867 there was no 
record of it for the island, but Mann in his list of that date suggests that 
it was probably recently introduced and had succeeded in establishing 
itself. It is very questionable if 0. corniculata i the only other representa- 
tive of the genus here, is indigenous, so that the presence of the first 
species along with the best coloniser of the group is worthy of note and 
all the more worthy when the high endemic element in the Hawaian 
Flora is considered. From Hawai to Eastern China is no big step. So 
far as we can find Henry does not include it in his Chinese lists nor 
would ii appear to have become naturalised in Formosa or the Philippines. 
It was not enumerated in Hinds 184)1 collection from Hong Kong — one of 
the first to reach Kew — but Bentham mentions it in 1861 as u now 
established as an escape frofri gardens In the island . 99 Its absence from 
the other islands and the Asiatic mainland of these latitudes is therefore 
not likely to be of long duration. 
The immediate caused of this discussion of the distribution of 
0. corymbosa is its now noted presence as a well established plant in 
India. It was cultivated in ; the Royal Botanio Garden, Calcutta, in 1903, 
though of how it arrived there is no record and the plant did not again 
come to the notice of the botanical staff until 1918 when it was sent by 
the Rev. A. Sauliere from the Pulney Hills and published in his list 
as No. 525 worked out at the Herbarium. More recent collections 
Fyson from (No. 72 Yercaud, South India), C. W. Cousins (Mungpoo, E. 
Himalayas) and H, G. Carter (No. 102 Dibrugarh, Assam) have also 
come to hand. Cousins refers to it simply as in the neighbourhood 
of gardens, but Carter reports it as having become one of the worst 
pests of gardens and cultivated ground in N. Assam, the innumerable 
c 
