POPULAR FLORA. 
135 
1. Common Flax. Root annual; leaves lance-shaped; flower blue. Cultivated. L. usitatissimum. 
2. Virginia Flax. Root perennial; leaves oblong or lance-shaped; flowers very small, yellow. Dry 
woods. L. Virginianum. 
22. WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. Order OXALIDACEiE. 
Small herbs with sour juice, compound leaves of three leaflets, and flowers nearly as in 
the Flax family, but with 10 stamens, a 5-celled pod, and two or more seeds in each cell. 
One genus, viz. 
Wood-Sorrel. Oxalis. 
Sepals, petals, and styles 5. Stamens 10; filaments united (monadelphous) at the base. Pod thin, 
5-lobed. Leaflets obcordate. Flowering in summer. 
1. Common \V. One-flowered scape and leaves rising from a scaly rootstock, hairy; petals large, 
white with reddish veins. N. in cold and moist woods. 0. Acetosella. 
2. Violet W. Several-flowered scape and leaves, from a scaly bulb; petals violet. 0. violacea. 
3. Yellow W. Stems ascending, leafy; flowers 2 to 6 on one peduncle, small, yellow. 0. siricta. 
23. GERANIUM FAMILY. Order GERANIACEiE. 
Herbs or small shrubs, with scented leaves, having stipules, the lower ones opposite., 
Roots astringent.. Sepals 
5, overlapping. Petals 
5. Stamens 10, but part 
of them in some eases 
without anthers : fila¬ 
ments commonly united 
at the bottom. Pistils 
5 grown into one, that 
is, all united to a long 
beak of the receptacle 
(except the 5 stigmas) ; 
and when the fruit is 
ripe the styles split away 
from the beak and curl 
up or twist, carrying 
with them the five lit¬ 
tle one-seeded pods, as 
shown in Fig. 334. — There are three genera, viz. Geranium or Cranesbill; Erodium, 
which differs in having only 5 stamens with anthers, and the fruit-bearing styles bearded 
inside; and Pelargonium, which has the corolla more or less irregular, generally 7 stamens 
with anthers, &c. The latter are the House Geraniums, from the Cape of Good Hope, 
of several species and many varieties. We describe only the wild species of true 
?31. Leaf, and 332. Flowers of Wild Geranium. 333. Stamens and pistil. 334. Fruit bursting. 
335. Seed. 336. Same, cut across. 
