378 



2, POLYGALA CHAM.EBUXUS. 



BOX-LEAVED MILKWORT. 



Tins oenus contains plants of the wood}^, under shrubby, and 

 herbaceous perennial knids. 



It belongs to the class and order Diadelphia Octandria, and ranks 

 in the natural order oi' Lomentacece. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a five-leaved, small perianth: 

 leaflets ovale, acute: two below the corolla, one above that, and 

 two in the njiddle, subovatc, flat, xery large, coloured, (the wings) 

 permanent: the coroha subpapilionaceous: standard almost cylin- 

 drical, tubular, short, with a small reflex mouth, bifid: wings; keel 

 concave, compressed, ventricose towards the lip: appendix of the 

 keel, in most of the species two iln-ee-parlcd |iencil-.shaped bodies, 

 fastened to the keel towards the lip: the stamina have diadelphous 

 filaments (eight connected) enclosed within ihe keel: anthers eight, 

 simple: the pislilhim is an oblong germ: style simple, erect: stigma 

 terminating, thiekish, bifid: the pericarpium is an obcordate capsule, 

 compressed with an acute margin, two-celkd, two-valvcd: partition 

 contrary to the valves; opening al each margin: the seeds solitary, 

 ovate (with a glandular umbilicus). 



The species cullivaled are: 1. P. iiu/rf /Julia, Myrtle-leaved Milk- 

 wort; 2, P. ChamabiLVUs, Box-leaved Milk- wort. 



The first has a shrubby stem, covered with a smooth brown bark, 

 risinc four or five feet high, and seiuiing out several spreading 

 branches towards the lop: ihe leaves about an inch long and a 

 quarter of an inch broad, Uicid green, and sessile. The flov.-ers are 

 produced at th.e ends of ihe branches; they arc large, white on ihe 

 outside, but of a bright purple within: wings expanded wide, and 

 standard incurved. It continues flowering most part of the summei : 



