The first British record of Oxalis corniculata (Oxalidaceae)

In a letter written to Thomas Penny in the late 1570s or 1580s, the physician William Brewer described a plant which had appeared in his garden in Chard, S. Somerset. Though it occurred throughout his garden, he could not find it elsewhere in the neighbourhood. He identified it as Oxys flore luteo of Clusius. His account of the plant, which included an original description of its explosive seed dispersal, is sufficiently detailed to support its identification as the current Oxalis corniculata L. It is much the earliest British record of this species.