MILKWORT FAMILY 



POLYGALACE^ 



This is a comparatively small family repre- 

 sented in the eastern United States by the single 

 genus Poly gala, which includes a number of more 

 or less abundant wild flowers. Many of these 

 rather closely resemble one another and are some- 

 what difficult to determine with certainty, but a 

 very few of them are distinctive and widely dis- 

 tributed. 



Fringed Polygala. The most important of 

 these is the beautiful little Fringed Polygala, 

 which is widely distributed in Canada and the 

 northern states. John Burroughs has aptly said 

 that a bed of these flowers looks like a flock of 

 rose-colored butterflies resting after flight. But 

 they are not even what the naturalists call '' butter- 

 fly blossoms," for their structure adapts them to 

 the bees, so they are among the '' bee blossoms." 

 Bumble-bees seem to be the most frequent visitors. 

 They alight upon the mass of fringe at the end of 

 the flower and insert their tongues in between the 

 petals to sip the nectar. In doing this they depress 

 the keel of the flower, uncovering the anthers and 

 the stigma and bringing about cross-pollination 



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