145 



tudinal. Disk either absent or present, regular or irregular. Ovarium superior, com- 

 pressed, with 2 cells, which are anterior and posterior, the upper one occasionally sup- 

 pressed; ovules solitary, very rarely twin, pendulous; ntyle simple, curved, sometimes very 

 oblique and cucullate at the apex, which is also entire or lobed ; .stigma simple. Fruit 

 usually opening through the valves ; occasionally indehiscent, membranous, fleshy, coria- 

 ceous, or drupaceous, winged or apterous. Seeds pendulous, with a caruncula next the 

 hilum, naked or enveloped with hairs ; the outer integument crustaceous, the inner mem- 

 branous ; albumen abundant, fleshy, rarely reduced to a thin gelatinous plate, very seldom 



wanting; embryo straight, or slightly curved, with the radicle next the hilum Shrubs or 



herbaceous plants. Leaves generally alternate, sometimes opposite, mostly simple, and 

 always destitute of stipules. Flowers usually racemose, very often small and inconspicuous, 

 but shewy in many Polygalas. Pedicels with 3 bracteae. 



Affinities. The structure of this order has been admirably explained 

 by Messrs. Aug. de St. Hilaire and Moquin-Tandon, from whose memoir 

 above quoted, the foregoing character and almost all that is said here is 

 extracted, and to which I refer those readers who wish to study the subject 

 more intimately. Before adverting to the affinities of this order, it will be 

 useful to consider what is the nature of the irregularity of the flowers ; an 

 irregularity which is such as to obscure, in a great measure, the relative 

 position of the sepals and petals. The calyx apparently consists of but three 

 pieces, which are usually green, and like sepals in their common state; but 

 their real number is 5, the two coloured lateral petal-like bodies, sometimes 

 lying Avithin the apparent sepals, being in reality part of the series of the calyx. 

 The corolla is mostly monopetalous, and, if carefully examined, formed of 

 3 pieces ; namely, the keel and two petals, all soldered together. AVe have, 

 therefore, an abortion of two petals, according to the laws of alternation : 

 but this is not all ; there is not only an abortion of two petals, but of those 

 two which would, if present, be found right and left of the keel. The 

 monopetalous corolla is, therefore, formed by the cohesion of the two 

 posterior and the one anterior petal of a pentapetalous corolla, of which the 

 two lateral petals are suppressed. The keel has an appendage of an ano- . 

 malous character, called technically a crest, and often consisting of one or 

 even two rows of fringes or divisions, originating not from the margin but 

 from within it, and sometimes cohering in a common membrane at their base. 

 M. de St. Hilaire has satisfactorily shewn that this crest is nothing more 

 than the deeply-lobed middle segment of a keel, with these lobes in such a 

 state of cohesion that the central lobe is pushed outwards, while the lateral 

 ones cohere by their own margins and with its back. The stamens are only 

 8, two therefore are suppressed ; or in Krameria 4, one being suppressed. I 

 may remark, in addition, that the relative position of the fifth sepal and 

 petal respectively, was first indicated by Mr. Brown. Denham, 31. 



Polygalese are stationed by DecandoUe between Droseraceee and Tre- 

 mandreae, and in the immediate vicinity of Violacese. With the latter they 

 are related on account of their hypogynous stamens, irregular flowers, and 

 cucullate stigma ; and with Tremandrese on account of the caruncula of 

 their seed. To Fumariaceaj they approach in the general aspect of their 

 flowers ; but if my theory of the structure of that order be admitted, their 

 resemblance would not be so great as it appears to be. Leguminosae are 

 perhaps, notwithstanding their perigynous stamens, the order with which 

 Polygalese have the greatest affinity : the irregularity of corolla is of a 

 similar nature in both; there is in Leguminosse a tendency to suppress the 

 upper lateral petals, in Erythrina, as in Polygala ; the ascending direction of 

 the style and a cohesion of stamens are characters common to both orders. 

 That part of the Memoires dii Museum in which the second part of the 

 paper above referred to is to appear, not having reached this country when 

 the present sheet is sending to press, I have no means of knowing what 



L 



