\Salomo7iia?^ PolygalacecB, '^'^ 



Low country, principally in the dry districts. Colombo (Gardner) ; 



Haragama ; Nilgalla ; Mannar. Fl. Jan.-April ; bright blue and yellow.' 



Also in Southern India, the Malay Islands, China, and the Philippines. 



2. SAZiOBIONIA,* Lour. 



Annuals ; fl. in terminal spikes ; sep. 5, nearly equal ; 

 pet. 3, united at base to stam.-tube, lower not crested ; stam. 

 4 or 5, fil. monadelphous for lower half, anth. opening by- 

 pores ; ov. 2-celled, each cell with i pendulous ovule ; capsule 

 2-celled, didymous, flattened, 2-seeded ; seeds without an aril, 

 with endosperm. — Sp. 8 ; 5 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Leaves not ciliate i. S. oblongifolia. 



Leaves strongly ciliate 2. S. CORDATA. 



1. S. oblong-ifolia, DC. Prod. i. 354 (1824). 



Fl. Zeyl. n. 268. Polygala altata, L. Sp. PI. 705. Am. Pug. 4. 

 Thw. Enum. 22. C. P. 1086. 



Fl. B. Ind. i. 207. Wight, 111. t. 22 B. {S. obovata). 



A slender, erect annual, stem 6-12 or more in., striate, 

 glabrous, often slightly winged, with few ascending branches 

 in the upper part ; 1. sessile, oval-lanceolate-oblong or linear, 

 acute or acuminate, rounded at base, entire, glabrous ; fl. very 

 small, sessile, in a rather lax, erect, filiform spike, 2-3 in. long, 

 bracts acuminate ; capsule twice as broad as long, glabrous, 

 with a marginal crest of rigid, spinous cilia. 



Wet places in the moist low country ; rather common. Kalutara 

 (MacRae) ; Reigam Korale ; Pasdun Korale ; Kalawane, S. Prov.; 

 Hiniduma. Fl. March, September; purplish-white. 



Also in many parts of India and Malaya to tropical Australia. 



There is a specimen in Hb. Banks (Brit. Mus.) labelled ' Wil-mudu- 

 magane Cingalensibus ' from Van Royen, probably collected by Hermann. 



The original Polygala ciliata of Linnaeus (Herb. Hermann) I refer 

 to this (also noted in Thw. Enum. by Ferguson), but Bennett (in Fl. 

 B. Ind.) thinks the specimens identical with S. cor data. Linn.'s name 

 referred to the capsule, not the leaves, as is shown by his excellent de- 

 scription in Fl. Zeyl. (see Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 146). 



The figure of Wight quoted above is of a starved form ; Ceylon 

 plants are usually very much taller and more slender. 



2. S. cordata, Am. Pug. 4 (1836). 



S ciliata, DC. Prod. i. 354. Thw. Enum. 22. C. P. 2906. 

 Fl. B. Ind. i. 206 {S. ciliata, DC). Wight, 111. t. 22 c. 



An erect annual, differing from 6". oblongifolia only in the 

 following points : — stem stouter, more evidently winged ; 

 1. broader, ovate or ovate-oblong, subcordate at base, strongly 



* Commemorates King Solomon, the earliest of known botanists. 



