456 POLYGALACEiE. Polygala. 



127. — Moist sandy and grassy places, Louisiana and Texas. (S. Am. in S. Brazil, Para- 

 guay, &c.) Overlooking the small but distinct bilobed caruncle, Cliodat, 1. c, has called the 

 N. American form var. exappendiculata. In the seeds examined the caruncle appears to be 

 essentially as in the S. American plant. In its peculiar geographic distribution this species 

 may be compared with Sperc/ularia Platetisis, Cien/neyosta aulphurea, &c. 



= = =: Leaves, at least the lower ones, verticillate : wings obtuse or rounded at the apex : 

 flowers in slender tapering spikes. 



P. leptostachys, Shuttl. Tall and slender, scarcely branched, 1 to 2 feet high : inter- 

 nodes four to six times as long as the linear-oblong acute verticillate leaves : spikes a line 

 and a half in diameter ; small flowers sessile : elliptical wings exceeded by the elliptic- 

 oblong capsule. — Shuttl. in Gray, PL Wright, i. 41 ; Cliapm. Fl. 85; Wheelock, I. c. 121 ; 

 Chodat, 1. c. 140, t. 20, f. 21. — Dry pine barrens, Florida, first coll. by Leavenworth. Readily 

 recognizable by its very elongated internod'es. 



P. verticillata, L. Rather low, seldom over 8 inches in height except at the southwest, 

 when well developed rather copiously and verticillately branched and somewhat flat-topped : 

 leaves all or nearly all verticillate : flowers white or greenish but rarely with distinct pur- 

 plish cast, compactly arranged : wings usually smaller than the capsule wliich is apt to be 

 conspicuously exposed at maturity. — Spec. ii. 706 ; Hill, Veg. Syst. xxii. t. 53, f. 3 ; Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. i. 130; Wheelock, 1. c. 122; Chodat, 1. c. 138, t. 20, f. 17, 18, incl. var. apari- 

 noides, at least as to no. 26 of Drammond, but excl. var. ambigiia. — Dry pastures, &c., Maine 

 to Florida, west to the Saskatchewan, Boiirgeau, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, and even 

 Utah ; common ; fl. midsummer. A taller form from Texas, coll. Wright, has longer more 

 loosely flowered spikes. 



Var. ambigua, Wood. Quite simple or irregularly branched, often taller than the 

 type : upper and sometimes middle cauliue leaves alternate : spikes often loosely flowered 

 below : flowers commonly but not invariably purple-tinged : wings about equalling and often 

 appressed to the fruit. — Class-Book, ed. of 1861, 296; Wats. &, Coulter in Gray, Man. 

 ed. 6, 122 ; Chodat, 1. c. 139. P. ambigua, Nutt. Gen. ii. 89 ; Gray, Man. ed. 1-5 ; Wheelock, 

 1. c. 124. — Dry rich soil, Hartford, Maine, Parlin ; Vermont, Brainerd ; Springfield, Massa- 

 chusetts, Mrs. Smith ; Rhode Island, J. F. Collins (white-flowered) ; New Jersey to Georgia, 

 and westward to Louisiana, Missouri, and Indian Territory, C. S. Sheldon (ace. to Holz- 

 iuger). Generally recognizable from the type but not distinguished from it by a single 

 constant or wholly satisfactory difference. 



= ^= = ^ Leaves all alternate, sometimes much reduced : wings about equal to or sur- 

 passing the corolla : root simple or branched, not of fascicled fibres. 



a. Leaves almost filiform or reduced and scale-like : inflorescences (rather dense) ovoid to 

 cylindric, with conical gradually tapering summit : very slender simple or few-branched 

 species of the Gulf States, a foot to 18 inches in height. 



P. setacea, Michx. Perennials, sending up successive .slender subsimple almost filiform 

 apparently naked stems ; these (rarely 2 or 3 coetaueous) in turn dying down and leaving 

 only their blackened persisting bases ; branches when present simple, erect : leaves scale- 

 like, linear-subulate, scarcely more than a line in length : flowers small, white or nearly so: 

 wings spatulate : small capsnle at length somewhat deltoid from a broad base. — Fl. ii. 52 ; 

 Ell. Sk. ii. 183 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 129 ; Wheelock, 1. e 126 ; Chodat, 1. c. 195, t. 22, f. 28- 

 31. — Pine woods, &c., Florida and perhaps Georgia ; fl. spring. 



P. Chapmani), Torr. & Gray. Similar in its slender flexuous habit but annual : leaves 4 

 to 8 lines in length : flowers rose-purple : crest of keel reduced to 2 or more low blunt pro- 

 cesses. —Fl. i. 131 ; Chapm. Fl. 83 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 132 ; Chodat, 1. c. 192, t. 22, f. 21-23.— 

 Florida, where first coll. by Chapman, to Alabama, Mohr, and S. Mississippi, Miss Skehan. 



b. Leaves linear to narrowly oblong ; inflorescences subglobose, ovoid, or short-cylindric, 

 very obtuse or (in P. Curtissii) tending to be abruptly apiculate : plants when well devel- 

 oped considerably branched. 



p. Curtissii, Gray. When young subsimple but soon copiously branched, 6 to 15 inches 

 high : branches widely spreading, curved-ascending, leafy : stem-leaves ol)long-linear, about 

 an inch long ; the ramoal linear, 4 to 9 lines in length, not a line in breadth : inflorescences 



