DECANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. Oxalis. 
561 
O. ascetosei/la. Stalk single-flowered: leaves ternate: leafits in¬ 
versely heart-shaped, hairy: (rootjointed, scaly. E.) 
Curt. Ill— (JE. Bot. 762. E.)— FI. Dan. 980— Sheldr. 26 — Mill. III. — Wale. 
Blackw. 308— Woodv. 20— Fuchs. 56 7 — J. B. ii. 387. 2— II. Ox. ii. 17. 
row 4. 1— Trag. 521—Mill. 195. 2—Dod. 578.2— Lob. 499. 1—Ger. Em. 
1201—Park. 746. 1 —Pet. 63. 7—Louie, i. 219. 1—Matth. 837— Get. 
1030. 1 —Jacq. Ox. 80. 1. 
( Scape two to four inches high, wavy. Leaf-stalks long and slender, pur¬ 
plish. E.) Leaves frequently purple underneath. Leafits close against 
rain, (and droop at night. E.) Flowers large. Petals white, beautifully 
veined with purple. Woodw. The petals are connected by small fleshy 
excrescences, the claws being inserted into the receptacle separate and 
distinct. 
Wood-sorrel. Cuckoo-bread. Sour Trefoil. (Scotch: Gouke - 
meat. Irish: Seamsog. Welsh: Suran y coed gyjfredin. Gaelic: 
Biadh-eunain ; feada-coille. E.) Woods, shady hedges, and heaths. 
P. April.* 
Var. 2. Blossoms purple. 
Lane between North Owram and Halifax. Ray. (Near Keswick. Mr. 
Hutton. Ravens worth woods, Durham. Mr. Winch. E.) 
O. cornicula'ta. Stem reclining, herbaceous: fruit-stalks forming 
umbels: root fibrous. E.) 
{E. Bot . 172 6—Linn. Tr. ii. t. 23. f. 5. E .)—Jacq. Ox. 30. 5—FI. Dan. 873 
— Clus. ii. 249. 1— Dod. 579. 1— Loh. Obs. 495.2— Ger. Em. 1202— Park. 
746. 2—J. B. ii. 388— H. Ox. ii. 17. row 4. 2—Ger. 1030. 2. 
( Stems downy, leafy, six to eight inches long, prostrate, radicating. E.) 
Filaments connected as in the Class Monadelphia. St. Umbel generally 
of two flowers. Mart. Seeds brown, transversely scored, enclosed in a 
* (By a strange corruption this plant obtained the name of Alleluja , probably from its 
being called in the south of Italy Juliola, whence also its officinal name Luzula. E.) An 
infusion of the leaves is a pleasant liquor in ardent fevers, and boiled with milk they make 
an agreeable whey. Lewis. Sheep, goats, and swine eat it. Cows are not fond of it. 
Horses refuse it. The juice is gratefully acid. The London College directs a conserve to 
be made of the leaves, beaten with thrice their weight of fine sugar. The expressed juice 
depurated, properly evaporated, and set in a cool place, affords a chrystalline acid salt, (by 
modern chemists considered peculiar, and denominated Oxalic Acid, E.) in considerable 
quantity, which may be used wherever vegetable acids are wanted. It is employed to take 
iron-moulds out of linen, and is sold under the name of Essential Salt of Lemons. 
We are lately assured that the leaves and stalks wrapped in a cabbage-leaf, and macerated 
in warm ashes until reduced to a pulp, have been successfully applied to scrophulous ulcers. 
This poultice should remain on the sore for twenty four hours, and be repeated four times. 
Afterwards the ulcer is to be dressed with a poultice made of the roots of Meadowsweet, 
bruised and mixed up with the scum of sour buttermilk. Beddoes on Fact. Airs. (Curtis 
remarks that the peculiar economy of this delicate plant in some particulars resembles that of 
the Violet. It continues to produce seed-vessels and seeds, during the greatest part of the 
summer, without any appearance of expanded blossoms, which are only observable at one 
particular season. As soon as the plant has done flowering, the flower-stalk, as in many 
other species, bends down ; and when the seed is ripe, again becomes upright. If these 
seed-vessels be slightly pressed, they open at the angles, and the seeds are thrown out at the 
apertures; not from any elasticity in the capsule itself, which continues unchanged ; but by 
the expansion of a strong white shining arillus , which covers the seed, and propels it to a 
considerable distance. E ) 
VOL. ii. 2 O 
