242 CONSPECTUS POLYGALAEUM EUROP.^ARUM. 



belonging to a group characteristically Asiatic in its distribution ; 

 while the remaining two species are monotypic or nearly so, and 

 have by some been erected into distinct genera. My materials, in 

 addition to those named m the review referred to above, have been 

 specimens kindly forwarded to me by Prof. Caruel, of Pisa, Mr. 

 Gr. C. Joad, and others. 



The following is a brief statement of the salient characteristics 

 of the European species. There is at present, as far as I am 

 aware, no satisfactory classification into sub-genera of the very 

 numerous species (upwards of 300) included in the genus ; the 

 one in the first volume of DeCandolle's 'Prodi-omus' (1824) is 

 founded on very unsatisfactory characters. The minor divisions 

 in Eeichenbach's and Caruel's monographs may, for the most part, 

 be accepted, but not so those in Dumortier's i)aper. A classifica- 

 tion which brings together P. cumosa and (KVi/ptera, while separating 

 P. vuhjaris, serpyllacea, and oxuptera into three separate divisions, 

 stands self- condemned as an attempt at a natural system. Espe- 

 cially unfortunate is his section of " Oppositifolige," including 

 P. mutahilis and serpyllacea. Good tribal characters ma}^ no doubt, 

 be in some instances drawn from the character and arrangement of 

 the foliage in this genus. In my account of the Brazilian species, 

 in Martius's ' Flora Brasiliensis,' I have collected into a special 

 division all those species in which some or all of the leaves are 

 verticillate, and which a^Di^ear to constitute a very natural group 

 absolutely confined to the New World. But in the Old World it is 

 doubtful whether any of the species have truly opposite leaves, 

 even if we include the P. opposiiifolia of the Cape, in which most 

 of them are apparently so. In P. serpyllacea [depressa) it is not 

 usual for even the lowest leaves to be exactly o^Dposite ; and I am 

 entirely unacquainted with any form answering to Dumortier's 

 description of his P. mutahilis, in which he describes all the leaves 

 on the sterile branches as opposite. 



Pol YGAL ARUM Europe ARUM Clavis. 



I. Sectio Eu-POLYGALA. 



A. Perennes. Antherae sessiles. 



a. Ahi9 corollae tubum asquantes vel eo lougiores. 

 '•' Flores cferulei, rosei, vel albi. 



a. Bracteae quam pedicellos multo breviores ; racemus 

 itaque non comosus. 



1. P. VULGARIS. Non cfEspitosa ; alas ovales. 



2. P. CALCAREA. CtTsxHtosa ; alae capsula latiores. 

 8. P. AMARA. Ca3si)itosa ; ala3 capsula angus- 



tiores. 



4. P. FOROJULENsis. Subca}spitosa ; ahc sub- 



rotunda? ; racemus abbreviatas. 

 h. Bracteas pedicellum aequantes; racemus i nque sub- 

 coiuosus. 



5. P. Nic^ENsis. Ala3 subrotunda3. 



6. P. Pkeslii. Alaj anguste oblongae. 



