Oxalis

“ ORDER LIII.—OXALIDEÆ.—THE WOOD-SORREL TRIBE.
The flowers of all the species of Oxalis, the Wood-sorrel, are very pretty. The flowers have five regular petals, each furnished with a claw; and the petals are spirally twisted in the bud. There are ten stamens, and five styles. The capsule is five-celled, and five or ten valved, the valves opening lengthways. Most of the species are natives of South America, and greenhouse plants in England. ”

“ In another natural genus, Oxalis, the cotyledons of O. Valdiviana, rosea, floribunda, articulata, and sensitiva are pulvinated, and all move at night into an upward or downward vertical position. In these several species the pulvinus is seated close to the blade of the cotyledon, as is the usual rule with most plants. Oxalis corniculata (var. Atro-purpurea) differs in several respects; the cotyledons rise at night to a very variable amount, rarely more than 45° ”

“ Species of Oxalis are also abundant in South America, where some of them form tall shrubs.
Heterostylism, i. e. the different relative lengths of the stamens and styles, is found in the genus. In some flowers the styles exceed the stamens, while in others the stamens are longer than the styles. This arrangement of the sexual organs ensures that cross-pollination will take place.
Our plate was prepared from specimens grown at the Division of Botany, Pretoria, from corms presented by Dr. C. L. Leipoldt, who collected them at Pakhuis in the Clanwilliam Division. According to Dr. ”

“ The sepals, which enclose the ovarium whilst it is young, present an additional adaptation by expanding widely when the seeds are ripe, so as not to interfere with their dispersal. In the case of Oxalis acetosella, the capsules are said sometimes to bury themselves under loose leaves or moss on the ground, but this cannot occur with those of O. carnosa, as the woody stem is too high. ”

“ The recent slight showers, which alone had broken the long drought since the preceding spring, sufficed to awaken into life two species of Oxalis, whose flowers and early leaves just pierced through the hard surface of the soil; but, although some young leaves heralded the appearance of species of the lily tribe, no other new flowers had appeared. Ferns were scarce, but I was rather surprised to find a fine Adiantum in some abundance under the shade of the Quillaja and Kageneckia trees. ”

“ Embryo straight. Endosperm.
Fig. 429.—Diagram of Oxal’s acetosella.
Oxalis (Wood-Sorrel) . Leaves digitate. Species also occur with phyllodia, i.e. leaf-like petioles placed vertically without lamina; a few have pinnate leaves. The flowers are situated singly or in dichasia, and unipared scorpioid cymes. The pollination is effected by insects. Some species are trimorphic (long-, short-, medium-styled flowers) and some, e.g. O. acetosella, have cleistogamic flowers in addition to the ordinary ones. Glands are found on the outer side of the corolla-stamens or of all the stamens. ”

“ The seeds of the Oocahs genus are similar to capsules, and have a hard elastic covering, which bursts in such a way as to project the seed to a distance. The oxalis shrubs are frequently grown for ornament in gardens, ai\d especially as borders. Many of them have bulbous roots, and some are edible, such as the South American oca. There are said to be more than 200 species of oxalis.
Ox'ford, a city of England and the seat of the University of Oxford, is near the union of the Cherwell and the Thames, 52 miles from London. ”

“ With two other trimorphic species he finds that isolated plants are always sterile.
Fritz Muller formerly believed that a species of Oxalis, which is so abundant in St. Catharina that it borders the roads for miles, was dimorphic instead of trimorphic. Although the pistils and stamens vary greatly in length, as was evident in some specimens sent to me, yet the plants can be divided into two sets, according to the lengths of these organs. A large proportion of the anthers are of a white colour and quite destitute of pollen; others which are pale yellow contain many bad with some good grains ”

“ In Oxalis it sometimes differs in hairiness in the three forms. In Linum the pistils either diverge and pass out between the filaments, or stand nearly upright and parallel to them. The stigmas in the two forms often differ much in size and shape, and more especially in the length and thickness of their papillae; so that the surface may be rough or quite smooth. Owing to the rotation of the styles, the papillose surface of the stigma is turned outwards in one form of Linum perenne, and inwards in the other form. ”

“ The whole case is remarkable, as with the cotyledons of no other plant have we seen any nocturnal movement except vertically upward or downward."
The various ways in which the leaves of plants are protected from loss of heat by radiation at night are shown by diagrams and pictures from which we select some of the most striking. A good deal of space is given to an account of the circumnutation and nyctitropic movements of the Oxalidæ. In most of the species of oxalis the three leaflets sink vertically down at night. ”

“ The others need only be liberally supplied at the surface of the pot. Give them neat green-painted rods to support their flower stems, and keep them all near the light. The spring flowering Oxalis will not open except it is exposed to the full rays of the sun. The Lachenàlia is greatly improved in colour with exposure to the sun, though when in flower its beauties are preserved by keeping it a little in the shade.
Prímulas, or Primrose, both Chinese and European, delight in an airy exposure; but the sun destroys the beauty of their flowers by making the colours fade. ”

“ With the flower-peduncles of Oxalis, epinasty causes them to bend down, so that the ripening pods may be protected by the calyx from the rain. Afterward they are carried upward by apogeotropism in combination with hyponasty, and are thus enabled to scatter their seeds over a wider space. The capsules and flower-heads of some plants are bowed downward through geotropism, and they then bury themselves in the earth for the protection and slow maturation of the seeds. This burying process is much facilitated by the rocking movement due to circumnutation. ”

“ Oxalis corniculata, L. (Gerard, em., p. 1202) , common to Europe and America.
[155] Ulmus, L. There are no species common to America and Europe.
[156] See the Voyages, p. 69, where the author has it “the line-tree, with long nuts: the other kind I could never find.” The former was Tilia Americana, L.,—a species peculiar to America.
[157] See p. 48; and Voyages, p. 69. None of our species are found in Europe.
[158] The plant intended is doubtless the same with that spoken of in the Voyages, p. 80.—“Rosa solis, sundew, moor-grass. ”

“ I should never have thought of it; yet this was stupid of me, for I remember thinking that the almost closed imperfect flowers of Viola and Oxalis were related to the protrusion of the pollen-tubes. My case of the Aceras with the aborted labellum squeezed against stigma supports your view. (640/4. See "Fertilisation of Orchids," Edition II., page 258: the pollen germinated within the anther of a monstrous flower.) Dr. Cruger's notion about the ants was a simple conjecture. About cryptogamic filaments, remember Dr. C. says that the unopened flowers habitually set fruit. ”

“ Plants (chiefly herbs) with perfect and generally symmetrical hypogynous flowers; the stamens, counting sterile filaments, as many or commonly twice as many, and the lobes or cells (1–few-ovuled) of the ovary as many, as the sepals, the axis of the dry fruit persisting.—Seeds without albumen except in Oxalis. Flowers mostly 5-merous and the sepals usually distinct. Leaves never punctate. An order not easily defined, and including several strongly marked tribes or suborders which have been regarded by many botanists as distinct. ”

“ The tender Oxalises or Wood-Sorrels, are deserving of more attention from those who have sunny frames or unheated greenhouses, or even a sunny window, where these flowers can open, for all are sun-lovers. They like a light, rather sandy soil and may be planted in autumn or early spring about two inches deep. ”

“ It is her daily food which is daily becoming a cat inside her—her saucers of milk now, and very soon her mice, all serve to the same end.
The large ox, too, of whom you are so much afraid, because you cannot as yet be persuaded what a good-natured beast he really is, and how unlikely to do any harm to children who do none to him—that large ox began life as a small calf, and it is the grass which he has been eating for some time past which has transformed him into the huge mass of flesh you now see, and which by-and-by will be eaten by man, to become man's flesh in the same manner. ”

“ On reaching the part of the forest where I had, the day before, been chopping wood, I filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security against another runaway. But the neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It defies ordinary burdens. Tame and docile to a proverb, when well trained, when but half broken to the yoke, the ox is the most sullen and intractable of animals. I saw in my own situation several points of similarity with that of the oxen. They were property; so was I. Covey was to break me—I was to break them. ”

“ The ox appears as a representative of the corn-spirit in other parts of the world. At Great Bassam, in Guinea, two oxen are slain annually to procure a good harvest. If the sacrifice is to be effectual, it is necessary that the oxen should weep. So all the women of the village sit in front of the beasts, chanting, “The ox will weep; yes, he will weep!” From time to time one of the women walks round the beasts, throwing manioc meal or palm wine upon them, especially into their eyes. When tears roll down from the eyes of the oxen, the people dance, singing, “The ox weeps! the ox weeps!” ”

“ I don’t know whether the oxen here are like those in India; but this I know, that the creaking of the carts and hackeries there is fifty times worse than this. The natives never grease the wheels; they say the oxen would not go on if they did not hear the music behind them.”
“Besides, the creaking of the wheels will by-and-by be of service; when we are travelling through grass higher than our heads, we shall not be able to stop behind a minute, if we have not the creaking of the wheels to direct us how to follow.”
“Well, then, I suppose we must save our grease,” said Alexander. ”

“ During the rainy season they furnish rich pasturage of tall grass, but in the dry season verdure disappears and the soil becomes a powdery plain where thistles wave. Nothing, not even a tree, breaks the uniformity of these plains, the limits of which cannot be seen in any direction. There lives the wild ox, descendant of the domesticated ox that the Spaniards brought to this part of the New World, for the species did not exist anywhere in America before the arrival of Europeans. ”

“ The ox is larger and better built than that of the Russian and Siberian peasants, but it is far behind the Chinese ox, and cannot for a moment be compared with any noteworthy breed of Western Europe. It is of medium size and fleshy, its coat is short and smooth-haired, its horns long and curved, its prevailing colour a beautiful, warm red-brown. ”

“ And slowly rowing among the foot-travel, the ox-wagons rolling solid wheels below the high nets of the body. Slow oxen, with heads pressed down nosing to the earth, swaying, swaying their great horns as a snake sways itself, the shovel-shaped collar of solid wood pressing down on their necks like a scoop. ”

“ It is said that oxen which eat slowly are more capable of working than those which eat quick; that oxen fed on high and dry lands are more lively, vigorous, and healthy, than those which live on low and humid grounds; that they are all stronger when fed on dry hay than when fed with grass; that they meet with more difficulty on the change of climate than horses, and that, for this reason, oxen for the plough should never be purchased but in their own neighbourhood. ”

“ The ox, as the most useful animal, has appeared to them the most worthy of being revered; and they have made an idol of the object of their veneration, a kind of beneficent and powerful divinity; for we [42] are desirous of rendering all we respect, great, and capable of doing much good, or much harm.
[D] At Surat, Persia, and in all the provinces of India, they are used for carrying burdens and drawing a kind of coaches, and by constant habit they acquire such a dexterity that few animals can outrun them. ”

“ Thus the wild and domestic ox, the ox of Europe, Asia, America, and Africa; the bonasus, [47] the aurochs, the bison, and the zebu, are all animals of the same species, which according to the differences of climate, food, and treatment, have undergone all the variations we have explained. The ox is the most useful animal, and also the most universally dispersed; for, excepting South America, he has been found in all parts; his constitution being equally formed to withstand the ardour of the south, or rigours of the north. He appears to be ancient in every climate ”

“ Behold the white oxen are the gods. The black oxen are the Schimnus. To-morrow, when thou seest the herd as of black oxen driving back the white, then string thine iron bow, and search out for thy mark a black ox, bearing a white star on his forehead. ”

“ Oxen must be broken when they are three years old; after that it is too late, and before too early. The ox is most easily broken by yoking it with a trained animal. The ox is our closest companion, both in labor generally, and in the operations of agriculture. Our ancestors considered it of so much value, that there is an instance cited of a man being brought before the Roman people, on a day appointed, and condemned, for having killed an ox, in order to humor the whim of his wife, who said that she had never tasted tripe ”