Oxalidece.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
175 
which snow lies during- the winter months, differs, as well pointed out by Dr. Hooker, solely in the suppression 
of stems and peduncles, by which means pedicels and petioles are all arising from the summit of the root, 
bracteoles and stipules being simultaneously enlarged. 
In flower and fruit throughout the year. 
Order OXALIDECE. 
R. Brown , Append, to Tuchey's Congo Exped. 432-433. 
Flowers bisexual, symmetrical. Sepals 5, free or towards the base connate, 
imbricate in bud, persistent. Petals 5, alternate with tbe divisions of the calyx, 
short-unguiculate, spirally twisted in bud, deciduous. Stamens 10, free or at the 
base connate, all fertile or those opposite to the petals sterile. Anthers two-celled, 
introrse; cells parallel, longitudinally dehiscent. Pollen-grains smooth. Ovaries 
five-celled. Ovules 1 or more in each cell, affixed to the axis. Styles 5, capillary, 
free or at the base connate, long persistent. Stigmas terminal. Fruit usually capsular, 
five-cellecl, loculicidal-dehiscent, with valves permanently connate with the axis, rarely 
baccate and indehiscent. Outer arillar integument of the seed bivalved, elastically 
receding, very seldom wanting. Albumen copious, fleshy. Embryo straight or slightly 
curved. Cotyledons oval. Radicle superior. 
Acid herbs, rarely lialf-shrubs or shrubs, very rarely trees, represented in all 
zones but the highest arctic latitudes, counting very many species in Southern 
Africa, tropical and subtropical America, but few in any other part of the globe. 
Petioles often transparent and enlarged at the base by a vaginal or stipular dilation. 
Leaves compound, alternate or crowded, rarely verticillate or opposite, relapsing in 
repose. Peduncles terminal, axillary or radical, 1-2-flowered or bearing an umbel 
or rarely a racemose panicle, often pellucid. Color of petals various. Petaline fila¬ 
ments shorter and interior. Anthers finally versatile. Capsule often five-furrowed. 
Seeds pendulous.— Endl. Gen. Plant. 1171; Torr. 8f Gray, FI. of North. Amer. i. 310; 
FLarv. 8f Sond. Flor. Capens. i. 313. 
This order, although nearest related to the gruinal families, touches also on 
Connareae, Balsaminese and Zygophyllese. It contains, as far as known, no other 
Australian members than the Victorian species. Beyond Oxalis no other known 
genus but Averrlioa can well be arrayed in this order. 
OXALIS. 
Linn. Gen. Plant, 582.—Wood-sorrel. 
Sepals 5, free or towards the base united. Petals 5, tender-membranous. Stamens 10, all fertile 
or o sterile. Styles 5, terminated by papillose rarely bilobed stigmas. Capsule loculicidal-fivevalved, 
more or less seceding into its carpellary parts. Seeds 1, 2, few or many in each cell. 
