142 POLYGALiE AMERICANiE. 



It appears to me absoliitel}^ indistinguishable from the Brazilian 

 P. heheclada, DC, except in the uncertain character that in the 

 North American plant the bracts are always deciduous before 

 flowering, while in the southern form they are almost alwaj^s ^Der- 

 sistent. If the two are identified, DeCandolle's name mast yield 

 in priority to Walters' s ; but it is very remarkable that the species 

 should occur abundantly in such widely separated districts, 

 without any record of its occurrence in the intervening country 

 from Texas to the Amazon. 



P. angustifolia, H. B. K., v;, 405, t. 511, a species widely dis- 

 tributed throughout South America, and occurring also in the 

 West Indies, appears to extend to Southern Mexico (Liebm., 23, 

 24; Wawr., 117). P. fiahellata, Shuttl., from Florida, is very 

 nearly allied, if not identical. 



The list of Sections A and B, comprising the whole of the 

 crestless Polygalas known to the American Flora, is completed by 

 the addition of the 22 species described by me in Martius's ' Flora 

 Brasiliensis.' 



Sectio C. — Carina cristata. Caulis aphyllus vel subaphyllus, 

 vel folia perpauca vel squamiformia. Herba floribus parvis, 

 sive tenues hand ultra semipedales, sive majores, durae, rigidas, 

 fragiles. 



A section which has its centre in Tropical Brazil, and includes 

 but few species beyond the bounds of that kingdom and Guiana. 



10. P. spinescens, Gill, in Hook. Bot. Misc., iii., 146 (non 

 Decaisne). Fruticulus rigidus ramosissimus ; ramis in spinas 

 aciculares currentibus. Folia jDarva, minutissima, linearia, subu- 

 lata, 2 lin. longa. Flores pauci, solitarii, vel in racemos brevis- 

 simos congregati, 2 lin. longi, pedicellis glabris quam flores 

 dimidio brevioribus suffulti; bracte^ minutissimas, deciduae. Sepala 

 exteriora ovata, subsequalia, leviter ciliata ; alae obovatae, sub- 

 uuguiculatae, corollam j)ai'vo excedentes. Carinae crista grandis, 

 fimbriata; petalalateralia ascendentia. Ovarium ellipticum. Cap- 

 sula (immatura) 2^ Im. longa, anguste ovalis, truncata, glabra. 

 Semina triplo longiora quam lata, hirsuta ; arillodii appendices 

 semine f breviores. 



Chile. Dry hills near Agua de los cielos, Mendoza, Gillies. 

 The only spiny South American Polj^gala, and remarkably different 

 from any other sj)ecies. By some extraordinary blunder, Seemann 

 (Bot. Her., 269) identifies Gillies' plant from Chile with Kunth's 

 P. scoparia from Mexico ! a confusion which is inexplicable to any 

 one who has seen the two plants. The sjaionym under the latter 

 name in Watson's ' Bibliographical Index ' must therefore be 

 expunged. Gillies described this i)lant in 1833. In the following 

 year Decaisne (Fl. Sin., 51) gave the same name to a spiny 

 Polyijala from the Sinaitic Peninsula, which should be known by 

 the specific name Decaisnei, subsequently given to it by Steudel. 



P. incarnata, Linn.; Torr. & Gr., FL N. Am., i., 129. — This 

 species extends from New Jersey and Missouri southwards to 

 Florida, Texas, and Mexico. A Mexican form almost entirely 



