26 i>olygalace^. 



POLYGALACE/E f.b.i. i6. 



A family of ten genera and about 700 species, occur- 

 ring all over the world but only rarely in the Arctic 

 regions, Polynesia, and New Zealand. POLYGALA is 

 the chief genus. 



POLYGALA. F.B.I. 16 I. 



Milkwort. 



Flower in general appearance very like that of the 

 Pea, there being a pair of spreading wings (the two inner 

 and lateral sepals) and a keel (the lower petal) ; but 

 at once distinguished from that family by a fringe at the 

 tip of the keel, and in essential details quite distinct. 

 Sepals five, of which three are small. Petals three only, 

 the anterior one boat or keel-shaped. Stamens eight, 

 united together at the base and to the keel : anthers 

 free, opening by pores at the ends. Ovary two-locular : 

 fruit a flat oval capsule, winged slightly along the edges 

 except at the top, where is a notch. Seeds one only 

 in each loculus, pendulous, large and with a branched 

 appendage (aril) which in the different species varies in 

 size. Trees, shrubs or herbs, with simple alternate 

 leaves and no stipules. 



Species about 450, in all the temperate and warmer parts of 

 the world. 



There is a bract and two bracteoles below the flower, and in some 

 species the latter disappear before the flower opens, in others they persist. 

 In some species also the two larger, 7utng, sepals are green (herbaceous) in 

 others coloured (petaloid). The aril of the seed may be ver}' large and red, 

 covering nearly the whole seed, or more usually white and then with two 

 or three outgrowths [arms) spreading down over the seed, or without any. 

 These characteristics are therefore to be observed for the determination of 

 a species. 



Pollination is brought about in much the same way as with 

 the Papilionaceae. The anthers shed their pollen into the 

 keel and it is pushed out when an insect alights to suck 



