sorrel, Oxalis corniculata, grows wild in shady, 
moist, rocky or waste grounds in many parts of 
Britain, and has become almost a weed in some 
gardens. Its root is annual and fibrous; its 
stems are procumbent, branched, leafy, and about 
3 inches high; its leaves are palmately trifoliate, 
and have sessile leaflets; and its flowers grow in 
small umbels on footstalks, and have a yellow 
colour, and bloom from May till October. 
The crenate-flowered, notch-petalled, tuber- 
ous-rooted, or potato-bulbed wood-sorrel, Oxalis 
crenata, is a native of Peru, and was introduced 
to Britain in 1829, and has for several years 
been claiming the attention of farmers as pos- 
sibly a valuable agricultural plant. A colour- 
ed figure of it is given in Plate LXIV. Its 
roots are tuberous and esculent, and are used 
in the same way as the tubers of the potato; 
its stems are succulent, branching, and about 
3 feet long, and they bend over or trail on the 
ground, but are upright toward the point of 
the shoots; its leaves are trifoliate and slightly 
hairy, and have inversely heart-shaped leaflets ; 
and its flowers have bright yellow petals, with 
crenate or notched edges, and bloom in Septem- 
ber. The average weight of each tuber, in expe- 
rimental growths of the plant at Ayton House in 
Berwickshire, was two ounces; and the average 
aggregate weight of all the tubers at each plant, 
in experimental growths at Meadowbank Nur- 
sery near Edinburgh, was half a pound. The 
foliage and the tender juicy stems of the plant, 
as well as the tubers, are esculent, but are used 
in the way of salad; and it is cultivated in its 
native country for the sake of both them and 
the tubers. It thrives best in dry light soils of 
_ medium fertility, and requires a warm and well 
sheltered situation, and should be planted at 
distances of between 2 and 3 feet. The tubers 
do not begin to form till toward the end of au- 
tumn ; and, when cooked, they have a yellowish 
colour, a very mealy consistency, and a taste 
slightly and pleasantly acidulous, but in other 
respects similar to that of a fine potato. The 
presumption is that, bulk for bulk, they are 
much more nutritious than potatoes, and that, 
at the same time, they possess decided antiscor- 
butic and antiseptic properties, so as to be greatly 
more wholesome than potatoes for use along 
with a flesh-meat diet. 
Deppe’s wood-sorrel, Oxalis Deppet, is a native 
of Mexico, and was introduced to Britain in 
1827. It possesses similar agricultural recom- 
mendations to the preceding, and is also figured 
in Plate LXIV. But it isa much smaller plant 
than the crenate-flowered wood-sorrel, and has 
very beautiful coppery-red flowers, and blooms 
throughout the long period from March till No- 
vember, and thrives best in a soil of sandy peat. 
The four-leaved wood-sorrel, Owvalis tetra- 
phylla, is also a native of Mexico, and was intro- 
duced to Britain in 1823. Its roots are thick 
and fusiform, and send up many spreading fila- 
763 
ments from the crown, with attached small scaly 
bulbs, which produce new plants in the follow- 
ing year ; its leaves are radical and quadrifoliate, 
and have inversely heart-shaped leaflets; and its 
flowers come out either solitarily or four toge- 
ther, on an upright footstalk of about 6 inches 
in height, and have a light purple colour, and” 
bloom in June and July. The leaves of this 
plant, like those of the common and the crenate- 
flowered species, are eaten in the way of salad; 
and both the bulbs and the fleshy fusiform roots 
are eaten in a cooked state. 
A few of the best known or most interesting 
of the many ornamental species of wood-sorrel, 
are the small convex, O. convevula, bulbous- 
rooted, stemless, trifoliate-leaved, about 6 inches 
high, carrying pink flowers from January till 
November, and introduced from the Cape of 
Good Hope in 1789; the pretty, O. pulchella, si- 
milar in root and leaf and habit to the preced- 
ing, about 3 inches high, carrying white flowers 
in October and November, and introduced from 
the Cape of Good Hope in 1795; Piotta’s, 0. Pi- 
otte, similar in root and leaf and habit to the 
two preceding, about 3 inches high, carrying | 
orange-coloured flowers from January till Sep- 
tember, and introduced from the Cape of Good 
Hope in 1816; the various-coloured, O. versico- 
lor, bulbous-rooted, leafy-stemmed, glandularly 
and linearly leafleted, about 3 inches high, car- 
rying crimson flowers from January till March, 
and introduced from the Cape of Good Hope in 
1774; the yellow, O. flava, bulbous-rooted, stem- 
less, petiolately, palmately, and numerously leaf- 
leted, about 6 inches high, carrying yellow flow- 
ers in March and April, and introduced from the 
Cape of Good Hope in 1775; the cloven-leaved, 
O. bifida, tuberous - rooted, stemless, trifoliate, 
about 9 inches high, carrying violet - coloured 
flowers in September and October, and intro- 
duced from the Cape of Good Hope in 1791; the 
beaked, O. rostrata, bulbous - rooted, stemless, 
simple -leaved, about 3 inches high, carrying 
purple and violet flowers in October and Novem- 
ber, and introduced from the Cape of Good Hope 
in 1795 ; the goat’s foot, 0. caprina, noticed in the 
article Goat’s Foor; the flesh-coloured, O. incarna- 
ta, bulbous-rooted, with elongated sparcely-leaved 
stems, stalked leaflets, and axillary peduncles, 
about 6 inches high, carrying flesh-coloured flowers 
from April till June,and introduced from the Cape 
of Good Hope in 1839; the rosy, O. rosea, fibrous- 
rooted, leafy - stemmed, evergreen palmate tri- 
foliate leaved, about 6 inches high, carrying red 
flowers in March and April, and introduced from 
Chili in 1823; and Barrelier’s, 0. Barrelier?, an 
evergreen undershrub, with leafy stems and tri- 
foliate leaves, about 18 inches high, carrying 
pale red flowers throughout most of the year, 
and introduced from Caraccas in 1824, 
WOOL. The filamentous substance which con- 
stitutes the peculiar natural covering of sheep. 
It resembles hair at once in physiological charac- 
TET | 
posses 
