POLYGALACE.E MILKWORT FAMILY 



Polygala cruciata, Walt. 



Dull magenta-pink Bitter Milkwort, 



Polygala, 



June-September Pink Milkwort, 



Century (local name). 



Polygala: old Greek name applied to some low shrub, 

 reputed to increase lactation because of a "notion that 

 cows eating this plant were able to give a greatly in- 

 creased supply of milk." 



Cruciata: from Latin for a cross. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: moist ground. 



THE PLANT: erect, four inches to ten inches high; the stem 

 freely branched above, square or angled, without hairs. 



THE LEAVES: verticillate in fours or a few of them scat- 

 tered; linear or oblanceolate; usually less than one inch 

 long; obtuse and capped with an abrupt tip at the apex; 

 stemless or nearly so. 



THE FLOWERS: crowded in oval heads, really in racemes. 

 THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



This low, pretty milkwort with its clover-like heads 

 of dull magenta-pink flowers, keeps company in the swamps 

 with hedge hyssop and the sundews. The stem is square 

 and widely branched and the narrow leaves prevailingly 

 in clusters of fours, are thin and smooth. 



1 80 



