120 POLYGALACE^. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 



Order 31. POLYGALACE^E. (Milkwort Family.) 



Plants with irregular hypogynous flowers, 4-8 diadelplious or monadel- 

 phous stamens, their l-celled anthers opening at the top hy a pore or chink : 

 the fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded pod. 



1. POLYGALA, Tourn. Milkwort. 



Flower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 3 (the upper 

 and the 2 lower) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner 

 (called wiurjs) are much larger, and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogy- 

 nous, connected Avith each other and with the stamen-tube, the middle (lower) 

 one keel-shaped and often crested on the back. Stamens 6 or 8 ; their fila- 

 ments united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less 

 witli the petals, free above; anthers l-celled, often cup-shaped, opening by a 

 hole or broad chink at the apex. Ovary 2-celled, with a single anatropous 

 ovule pendulous in each cell ; style prolonged and curved ; stigma various. 

 Fruit a small, loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the 

 apex, much flattened contrary to the very narrow partition. Seeds caruncu- 

 late. Embryo large, straight, with flat and broad cotyledons, in scanty albu- 

 men. — Bitter plants (low herbs in temperate regions), with simple entire often 

 dotted leaves, and no stipules ; sometimes (as in the first two species) bearing 

 cleistogamous flowers next the ground. (An old name composed of iroXvf, 

 iiiuc/i, and ydXa, milk, from a fancied property of its increasing this secretion.) 



* Perennial or biennial : flowers purple or white ; leaves alternate. 



*- Flowers sliowij, rose-purple, conspicuously crested ; also bearing inconspicuous 

 colorless cleistogamous flowers on subterranean branches. 



1. P. paucifblia, Willd. Perennial ,- flowering stems short (3 -4' high), 

 from long slender prostrate or subterranean shoots, which also bear concealed 

 fertile flowers; lower leaves small and scale-like, scattered, the upper ovate, 

 petioled, crowded at the summit ; fowers 1-3, /«r(7f,peduncled ; wings obovate, 

 rather shorter than the fringe-crested keel ; stamens 6 ; caruncle of 2 or 3 awl- 

 shaped lobes longer than the seed. — Woods, in light soil, N. Eng. to Minn., 

 111., and southward along the Alleghanies. May. — -A delicate plant, with 

 very handsome flowers, 9" long, rose-purple, or rarely pure white. Sometimes 

 called Flou-ering Wintergreen, but more appropriately Fringed Polygala. 



2. P. polygama, Walt. Stems numerous from the biennial root, mostly 

 simple, ascending, very leafy (6 - 9' high) ; leaves oblanceolate or oblong ; 

 terminal raceme loosely many flowered , the broadly obovate wings longer than 

 the keel ; stamens 8 ; radical flowers racemed on short subterranean runners ; 

 loI)es of the caruncle 2, scale-like, shorter than the seed. — Dry sandy soil; 

 common. July. 



-»- -1- Floirers white, in a solitary close spike ; none cleistogamous. 



3. P. Senega, L (Seneca Sxakeroot.) Stems several from thick 

 and hard knotty rootstocks, simple (6- 12' high) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, with rough margins ; wings round-obovate, concave ; crest short ; 

 caruncle nearly as long as the seed. — Rocky soil, W. New Eng. to Minn., and 

 southward. Mav. June. 



