Polygala. POLYGALACE^. 457 



slender-peduncled, commouly rather deuse, ovoid or even oblate, half inch or more iu diam- 

 eter, tending to be apiculate through the protrusion of the bract-covered axis : flowers rose- 

 purple, on filiform divaricate pedicels, these two or three times exceeding the wholly 

 persistent bractlets : wings narrowly ovate-elliptic, conspicuously unguiculate, about a line 

 in breadth : fruit at length exposed, broader than long ; small black seeds pyriform, almost 

 beaked, surmounted by a caruncle scarcely a fourth as long. — Man. ed. 5, 121 ; Wheelock, 

 1. c. 129. P.Nultalli, Chodat, 1. c. 190, t. 22, f. 19-20, not Torr. & Gray. — Dry ground on 

 hillsides, fields, and in open woods, Pennsylvania, at Bethlehem, Wolle, ace. to Wheelock, 

 southward to Georgia, westward to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and (?) Arkansas; 

 especially abundant in Maryland and District of Columbia ; fl. June to October. The 

 original specimens (coll. near Alexandria, Virginia, by Curtisa) have the flowers loosely 

 racemose with some of the subtending bractlets elongated and subfoliaceous, but are in these 

 regards highly exceptional, possibly abnormal, so that there is scarcely need to apply Dr. 

 Gray's name var. pijcnostachya (published by Knowlton, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, iii. 

 106) to the ordinary more densely flowered form. 



P. Mariana, Mill. Resembling the last preceding, but mostly with fewer more erect 

 branches : smaller roseate flowers clustered at the summit of the elongated axis in an ovoid 

 mostly very short and obtuse slender-pedunculate inflorescence (4 to 5 lines in diameter) : 

 lower bractlets deciduous with or soon after the flowers : wings oval, obtuse, rather abruptly 

 contracted below and very short-clawed : small relatively broad rather turgid pods and pyri- 

 form seeds much as in the last. — Diet. ed. 8, no. 6, ace. to AVheelock, 1. c. 131, the type 

 having been examined by Prof. Britton (Pluk. Mant. 153, t. 438, f. 5). P.fastirjiata, Nutt. 

 Gen. ii. 89 ; Chapm. Fl. 83; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 121 ; Chodat, 1. c. 193, t. 

 22, f. 24, 25. P. sangmnea, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 126, in part. — Hillsides, &c., Delaware, 

 Canby, to Florida, W. Tennessee, Bain, Texas, Wright, and Arkansas, ace. to Lesquereux. 



P. Nuttallii, ToRK. & Gray. Similar to the two preceding but of lower stature (4 to 9 

 inches high), almost always with a few erect branches : pedunculate inflorescences more 

 slender and distinctly cylindric, 2 to 3 lines in thickness, obtusish or subacute ; divaricate 

 branchlets persisting on lower parts of the floral axes : small flowers nearly sessile, purplish 

 or greenish white : elliptic-lanceolate subacute wings about a line in length. — Fl. i. 670 

 (as to first syn. P. sangmnea, Nutt.) ; Chapm. Fl. 83 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 133. P. sanguinea, 

 Nutt. Gen. ii. 88, not L. P. Torre iji, Chodat, 1. c. 194, t. 22, f. 26, 27 (who by Warwich, 

 Kingtown, and Cogdon, doubtless means Warwick, Kingston, and Congdon). — Mostly in 

 poor soil, Martha's Vineyard, Oakes, Rhode Island, Thurber, 0/nei/, Congdon, and from Long 

 Island, Winton, S. Pennsylvania, Porter, southward to Maryland, Canbi/, and Kentucky, 

 chiefly near the coast and seemingly most common iu the barrens of New Jersey ; fl. late 

 summer. The Missouri occurrence of this species, mentioned by Wats. & Coulter in Gray, 

 Man. ed. 6, 121, and its Arkansas occurrence ace. to Branuer & Coville, Rep. Geol. Surv. 

 Ark. iv. 168, have not been verified by the writer. Wats. Bibl. Index, 91, and Wheelock, 

 1. c, would seem to be in error in citing P. ambigua, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 130, as a synonym 

 of this species. 



P. sanguinea, L. More leafy and leaves broader, even the rameal often oblong rather than 

 linear : spikes thick, soon cylindric, when fully developed half inch in diameter, blunt : 

 flowers considerably larger than in the foregoing related species : the broadly ovate-oblong 

 wings closely imbricated, in fruit 3 lines iu length, two thirds as broad, sometimes slightly 

 mucronulate at the broad rounded apex, rose-purple passing through various gradations to 

 greenish white, with conspicuous more deeply colored miduerve : bractlets usually persist- 

 ent, from half to fully as long as the spreading pedicels : flask-shaped puberulent black seed 

 with a caruncle half or more than half its length. — Spec. ii. 705 ; Michx. Fl. ii. 52 ; Bigel. 

 Fl. Bost. 166; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 121 ; Chodat, 1. c. 191. P. viridescens, 

 L. 1. c.; Wheelock, 1. c. 127, incl. var. albiflora, the white-flowered form. P. purpwea, 'Nntl. 

 Gen. ii. 88 ; Barton, Fl. N. A. ii. t. 47 (wings too acute). — Meadows and road.sides, Nova 

 Scotia, McCulloch, southward to N. Carolina, westward to Minnesota, Kansas, and Indian 

 Territory, Palmer ; fl. June to October. An attractive species, the commonest of the North- 

 eastern States. Albinos are not infrequent. 

 = = :^ = = Leaves all or in great part verticillate : wings acute to caudate-acuminate. 



P. Hookeri, Tore. & Gray. Slender flexuous angulate stem more or less branched above, 



