156 THE MILKWORT FAMILY. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



Common Elatine — {Eldtine hexdndra.) 



Borders of Mere Mere, near Rostherne. Fl. July, August. Annual. 

 E. B. xiv. 955 (as E. Hydropiptr) ; Baxter, vi. 487. 



The real E. Hydropiper bas tetramerous flowers, and is figured in E. B., 

 Supp. i. 2670. 



XXXIV.— THE MILKWORT FAMILY. PolygaUeea. 



Under- shrubby or herbaceous plants, with leaves for the most part 

 simple, lanceolate, oval or triangular, entire, and always without 

 stipules. Flowers irregular and various. Those of the ordinary 

 kinds resemble the blossoms of the pea, but are provided with a 

 curious crest-like appendage, which, taken along with the exstipulate 

 leaves, serves at once to distinguish them from the Pea Family, and 

 as a ready personal characteristic for themselves. The family is 

 rather extensive, scattered all over the world, and remarkable for 

 various medicinal properties, bitterness predominating. The only 

 English species belongs to our own Flora, — the common milkwort, a 

 pretty little herbaceous plant, with slender, more or less procumbent 

 stems, upright when among long grass, three to six inches high, 

 clothed with narrow, lanceolate leaves, and terminating in a raceme of 

 deep blue flowers, which occasionally vary to white or pink. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



Moors, waysides, and dry, hilly pastures, frequent. Tandle Hill, 

 near Middleton. Abundant on Hale Moss, where Mr. Hunt finds also 

 the variety depressa. Fl. June, July. 



E. B. ii. 76; Baxter, iv. 25L 



Polygala chamtebuxus, a diminutive shrub, from the Alps, witli vtsUow pnrple- 

 tippcd flowers, appearing in Marcli and April, is common in gardens ; and in 

 green-houses there are many beautiful Cape species of the same genus, with 

 large pea-like crimson flowers, and mnspicuous crost of paler hue. 



