POLYGALACE^i ^7 



honey from the base of the flower and depresses the keel 



by its weight. The species differ in details. 



Flowers bright yellow, ^ inch ; seeds with large red eye 



surrounding a black circular disk ; shrub. . . P. arillata. 

 Flowers mauve or pink, i^ inch, in short racemes from the axils 



of the upper leaves ; rootstock woody, stems slender spreading 



on the ground . . . Milkwort .... P. sibirica. 

 Flowers solitary in the leaf-axils ; annual, erect or spreading, 



with narrow leaves . P. rosmarinifolia. 



Polygala arillata Hamilton, Wall. Cat. 4igi c and d I; 

 F.B.L i 200, I I ; Red-eye or Yellow Milkwort. Shrub 

 3 to 6 feet with loosely growing branches covered 

 with light coloured bark. Leaves up to 6 by 3 inches 

 elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, waved, 

 glabrousi dark dull-green. Flowers in drooping racemes 

 from the upper leaf-axils, yellow, ^ to M inch 

 across : bracts deciduous. Sepals unequal ; upper very 

 concave ; lateral (wings) oblong-pointed, spreading, 

 yellow, very conspicuous ; two lower small. Petals 

 yellow, keel with conspicuous fringe. Capsule almost 

 heart-shaped green till ripe, then straw-coloured and 

 opening on each side to expose the two pairs of seeds. 

 Seed about three-quarters covered by three large red 

 fleshy outgrowths which rise from the base and leave a 

 rounded area at the top. This area a jet black circular 

 patch with a slaty-blue zone round, like the pupil and 

 iris of an eye, in a red fleshy setting, t. 21. 



The seed remains some considerable time attached to the 

 dried capsule, which does not fall from the bush. See note on 

 Ternstroemia japonica Thiinb.^ P- 4i- 



Nilgiris : near Ootacamund and below. Pulneys : from 

 Shembaganur upwards. Flowers June, fruit from September. 

 Fyso?i 375, 1089, 1887. Bour?ie 437, 1403. 



Gen. Dist. If ills of South India — Western Ghats, Bababooduns, 

 Coorg, Anamalais, etc. Ceylon from 4,000 feet. 



Not elsewhere. Nepal and Khasi plants have the flowers in branched 

 racemes, and have been separated by Chodat as V . tricholopha. In the 

 F.B.I, the wings are given (PNepal and Khasi) as red -purple, but in our plant 

 they are a clear lemon yellow. 



