During the years 1864 to 1868 I occasionally experimented on
Oxalis speciosa, but until now have never found time to publish the results. In
1871 Hildebrand published an admirable paper in which he shows in the case of
two species of Oxalis, that the sexual relations of the three forms are nearly
the same as in Lythrum salicaria. (4/13. 'Botanische Zeitung' 1871 pages 416 and
432.) I will now give an abstract of his observations, and afterwards of my own
less complete ones. I may premise that in all the species seen by me, the
stigmas of the five straight pistils of the long-styled form stand on a level
with the anthers of the longest stamens in the two other forms. In the mid-
styled form, the stigmas pass out between the filaments of the longest stamens
(as in the short-styled form of Linum); and they stand rather nearer to the
upper anthers than to the lower ones. In the short-styled form, the stigmas also
pass out between the filaments nearly on a level with the tips of the sepals.
The anthers in this latter form and in the mid-styled rise to the same height as
the corresponding stigmas in the other two forms.
Oxalis Valdiviana.
This species, an inhabitant of the west coast of South America, bears yellow
flowers. Hildebrand states that the stigmas of the three forms do not differ in
any marked manner, but that the pistil of the short-styled form alone is
destitute of hairs.
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