N. ORD.—POLYGALACEZ. AB 
GENUS.—POLYGALA,* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.—DIADELPHIA OCTANDRIA. 
SENEGA. 
SENECA SNAKREROOT. 
SYN.—POLYGALA SENEGA, LINN.; P. VIRGINIANA, LEM.; PLANTULA 
MARILANDICA, RAII.; SENEGA OFFICINALIS, SPACH. 
COM. NAMES.—SENECA, SENEKA, OR SENEGA SNAKEROOT, MILEK- 
WORT, MOUNTAIN FLAX; (FR.) POLYGALE DE VIRGINIE; (GER.) 
SENEGAWURZEL. 
A TINCTURE OF THE DRIED ROOT OF POLYGALA SENEGA, LINN. 
Description.— Roo/stock thick, hard, knotty, and sometimes slightly branched. 
Stems several, simple, tough and wiry, from 6 to 12 inches high. Leaves alternate, 
sessile, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute at both ends; margins rough; stipules 
none. Jzflorescence a solitary, loose, terminal spike ; flowers small, greenish-white, 
almost sessile, and very irregular. Calyx persistent; sepa/s 5, arranged in two sets 
as to form; the outer set, composed of 3, are small, acute, lanceolate, and green- 
ish; the inner set, of 2, are large, broad, orbicular, concave, slightly veiny bodies, 
called a/e, enclosing the petals. eta/s 3, hypogynous, connected and united with 
the stamen-tube ; the middle or lower one keel-shaped, and short-crested along the 
back ; the two lateral oblong, blunt, and veiny. Séamens 8, enclosed by the lower 
petal; laments united below into two bundles of 4 each; anthers small, 1-celled, 
and opening by a pore at the apex. Ovary laterally compressed, 2-celled by a 
transverse partition; ova/es anatropous, pendulous, one in each cell. S¢y/e large, 
inflated, and curved above, greatly resembling in form a pipe thrust into the sum- 
mit of the ovary; séigma a fringe-like appendage to the upper margin of the 
bowl-like enlargement of the style. fruit a small, 2-celled capsule, flattened 
contrary to the partition, and partly enclosed by the persistent calyx; dehiscence 
loculicidal. Seeds black, hairy, with a white caruncle extending the length of the 
seed; embryo straight, axial ; albumen scanty. 
Polygalaceze.—This small family is represented in North America by 3 genera, 
comprising 45 species, of which 4o belong to the typical genus Polygala. This 
natural order is characterized as follows: Herbs or shrubby plants having roods 
furnished with a bitter, milky juice. Zeaves mostly alternate and entire; sépules 
absent. Flowers very irregular, hypogynous, and pseudopapilionaceous ; calyx 
consisting of 5 very irregular sepals, the odd one superior (Exc. Krameria). 
* Tots, polus, much; yada, gala, milk; as some species were supposed to increase this secretion. 
