Tas. 5057. 
POLYGALA Hi.arriaNna. 
St. Hilaire’s Milkwort. 
Nat. Ord. PotyGaLacE®.—DIADELPHIA OcTANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. Calycis sepala persistentia, 2 interiora aleformia. Petala 3-5, 
tubo stamineo connexa, inferiore carinzeformi (forsan e duobus coalitis constante). + 
Capsula compressa, elliptica, obovata aut obcordata. Semina pubescentia, /ilo 
carunculata, coma destituta. De Cand. 
Potyeata (§ Ecristata) Hilairiana ; frutex, caule simplici superne folioso, foliis 
oblongo-ovatis acutiusculis coriaceis basi in petiolum attenuatis, spicis axil- 
laribus terminalibusque folio brevioribus, floribus (inter maximos) sessilibus 
basi minute bibracteatis, calyce clauso, sepalis duobus interioribus corolla 
paulo brevioribus suboblique ovatis paululum falcatis, corolla imberbi, peta- 
lis 2 linearibus intermedio apice cucullato trilobo, ovario subrotundo emar- 
ginato. 
Potyeata Hilairiana. Endl. in Linnea, v. 17. p- 357.  <Atakt. Bot. v. 4. 4.453, 
Walp. Repert. Bot. Syst. v. 1. p. 242. é 
Received at the Royal Gardens of Kew from Mr. Mackay, of 
Liége, under the name of Polygala Brasiliensis, a species, if we | 
may judge from the brief and only character (of less than two — 
lines in De Candolle’s ‘ Prodromus’), with characters totally at 
variance from this now under consideration, which is, however, 
unquestionably identical with the Polygala Hilairiana of End- 
licher, of which we possess specimens from South Brazil, ga- 
thered by Sellow. It is also in the Benthamian Herbarium, from 
Martius (n. 1186). It is perhaps the largest-flowered species of 
the genys. Some of our leaves are fully a span long, and the 
flowers are quite an inch long. Yet although the leaves are 
large and evergreen, the flowers present but little show or 
beauty. Endlicher gives it as an inhabitant of the neighbour- 
hood of Bahia. It flowers in the stove during the spring 
months. ee 
Dzscr. Stem unbranched, erect, a foot high in our flowering 
plants, terete, woody below, herbaceous above, where alone the 
plant is leafy, glabrous, as is every part of the plant. Leaves in 
JUNE lst, 1858. 
