88 
POLYGALACEJS. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 
* Biennial: flowers yellow : crest of the keel small. 
1. P. liltea, L. Flowers in solitary ovate or oblong heads , ter¬ 
minating the stem or simple branches ( bright orange-yellow ) ; leaves 
obovate or spatulate; lobes of the caruncle nearly as long as the 
seed. — Sandy swamps, Long Island, New Jersey and southward. 
June-Sept.— Stems 6 ; -12' high, at first simple, bearing the showy 
head of flowers in diameter. Leaves 1- 2' long. 
2. P. cyIll6Sit, Walt. Flowers in small heads disposed in a 
compound level-topped cyme (i citron-yellow turning blackish-green in 
drying ); leaves linear or oblong-spatulate; caruncle short. (P. co¬ 
rymbose, Michx., ^*c.) — Damp pine barrens, New Jersey ? Delaware, 
and southward. — Stems 8'-12' high, simple or branched from the 
base. 
* * Annual: flowers purple or white, in spikes ; no subterranean ones. 
Leaves all alternate or scattered: flowers purple or flesh-color. 
3. P* incarnata, L. Glaucous; stem slender, simple or spar¬ 
ingly branched; leaves small, linear-awl-shaped; spike oblong or 
cylindrical; wings much shorter than the conspicuously crested corol¬ 
la ; claws of the petals united in a very long and slender cleft tube; 
caruncle longer than the stalk of the seed. — Dry soil, Ohio to W is- 
consin and southward. July. — Plant 1° high. 
4. P. sanguinea, L. Stem branched at the top; leaves ob¬ 
long-linear ; spikes roundish or oblong, very obtuse; icings broadly 
ovate, very obtuse ; caruncle almost as long as the seed. (P. purpurea, 
Mutt.) — Sandy and moist ground, common. July-Sept. — Stem 
& -12' high. . Spikes J' thick, reddish-purple : the rachis, as in No. 
5 and 6, beset with the persistent awl-shaped scaly bracts after the 
flowers have fallen. 
5. P, fastigiata, Nutt. Stem slender, at length much branch¬ 
ed above ; leaves linear; spikes short; icings ovate-oblong , tapering 
at the base into distinct claws ; caruncle as long as, and nearly envelop¬ 
ing, the stalk-like base of the minutely hairy seed. (P. sanguinea, Torr. 
Gr ., FI., excl. syn ; not of Mutt., nor L.) — Pine barrens of New 
Jersey (Muttall) and southward. — Spikes looser, and the rose-purple 
flowers much smaller, than in No. 4, brighter-colored than in the next, 
which it most resembles. Crest of the corolla minute, as in the re¬ 
lated species. 
6. P. Nuttallii, Torr. & Gr. (FI. 1, p. 670, excl. syn., & descr.). 
Low; stem branched above; leaves linear; spikes oblong, dense , 
wings elliptical, on very short claws ; caruncle small and applied to one 
side of the stalk-like base of the very hairy seed. (P. sanguinea, J^utt-j 
not of L. P. Mariana, &c., Pluk., t. 437. P. ambigua, Torr. 4' 
FI., not of Mutt.) — Dry sandy soil, Massachusetts to New Jersey 
and southward near the coast. Aug. — Plant 4 '-& high. Spikes 
