458 POLYGALACE^. Polygala. 



6 to 15 inches high, soon almost leafless below : leaves 3 to 6 lines long, scarcely a line wide : 

 pedunculate racemes rather louse and terminated even in fruit by the protruding sterile 

 imbricate-bracted apex of the axis : wings ovate-oblong, slightly narrower and more acute 

 than in the next, mostly couduplieate and tliereby appearing still more sharply pointed, 

 commonly exhibiting near the apex a spongy (glandular?) thickening: seeds scarcely half 

 line long. — Fl. i. 671 ; Chapm. Fl. 84; Wheelock, 1. c. 119; Chodat, 1. c. 188, t. 22, f. IS- 

 IS. P. attenitata, Hook. Jour. Bot. i. 195, not Nutt. — Gulf States from Florida to Louisi- 

 ana ; first coll. by Drummond. 



P. brevifolia, Nutt. Erect, much branched, 6 to 10 inches high or rarely taller : leaves 

 narrowly elliptic to linear-oblong, mostly obtuse, 6 to 8 lines h)ng, a line and a half in 

 breadth, the rameal commonly alternate : flowers rose-purple in pedunculate rather dense 

 spicate or capitate racemes which are soon obtuse at the summit : wings broadly ovate-oblong, 

 commonly expanded and flattish, merely acutish : seeds ovoid, fully three fourths line in 

 length, almost black, loosely puberulent, aijout equalled by the two long narrow scale-like 

 lobes of the caruncle. — Gen. ii. 89; Chapm. Fl. 84; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 

 122 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 119; Chodat, 1. c. 187, t. 22, f. 10-12. P. cruciata, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 

 127, in part. — Margins of swamps, &c.. New Jersey, where apparently common ; also in 

 Florida, Chapman, and Mississippi at Ocean Springs, Tracy, Pollard, where in its taller 

 growth and more apiculate racemes it approaches the last. Intermediate stations of this 

 (ace. to present knowledge) geograpliically dissevered species may be souglit with interest. 

 Its occurrence in Ohio, although mentioned in the original description, does not ajjpear to 

 have been confirmed in recent times. 



P. cruciata, L. Mostly low (3 to 10 inclies in height) and corymbosely branched: stem 

 wing-angled : leaves, in fours or fives, narrowly elliptic-oblong, obtuse or mucronulate, punc- 

 tate, about an inch in length, 1 to 2 lines in breadtii, the uppermost usually surrounding and 

 often surpassing the short thick subsessile spicate or capitate rather dense sometimes apicu- 

 late racemes of rose-purplish to greenish white flowers (rather large for the genus) : wings 

 caudate-acuminate from broad deltoid subcordate base : seed sparingly pubescent, black or 

 nearly so, elliptic-oblong in outline, nearly equalled by the caruncle. — Spec. ii. 706 ; Gray, 

 Gen. 111. ii. 223, t. 183, f. 12, 13, & Man. ed. 1-6 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 117 ; Chodat, 1. c. 185, t. 

 22, f . 6-9. P. cuspidata, Hook. Jour. Bot. i. 1 94, not DC. — Peat bogs, margins of swamps 

 and occasionally in drier situations. New England to Minnesota and southward to the Gulf 

 of Mexico ; fl. midsummer and early autumn. The very characteristic caudate acumination 

 of the wings is sometimes reduced or wanting {Leggctt). In the Gulf States plants of taller 

 stature, and with narrower linear leaves, pedunculate inflorescences, and deeper-purple 

 flowers, may be distinguished as var. ramosior, Nash, in herb. (Florida, Duval Co., Curtiss, 

 no. 509, Lake Co., Nash, nos. 1210, 2192, New Smyrna, Palmer, no. 30; Alabama, Gates; 

 Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Pollard, no. 1069), but the name is not well chosen, as the de- 

 gree of branching is neither constant nor marked. 



-I— -t— Flowers (homomorphous) bright yellow or orange (except in P. Baldwini), borne in 

 short thick terminal or corymbosely paniculate obtuse or a])icu]ate spikes or racemes : 

 erect glabrous mostly showj^-flowered annuals or biennials with fibrous or single and few- 

 branched roots and always alternate or basal leaves : sepals tending to be decurrent upon 

 the thus angled or narrowly -winged pedicels : species of the Middle and S. Atlantic and 

 Gulf States : wings acute or cuspidate. — De.currentes, Chodat, 1. c. 197. 



++ Spicate or capitate racemes solitary or few and remote, terminating the stems or their 

 few simple branches. 



= Wings ovate-lanceolate, gradually and sharply acuminate : keel with a long crest of 

 slender bifid processes: stems low (1| to 4 or 5 inches higli), often subscapose. 

 P. nana, DC. Subacaulescent annual with slender perpendicular simple or sparingly 

 branched root and chiefly radical spatnlate obtuse or mucronulate leaves : flowers very 

 numerous in compact oblong spikes bristling with the sharp-pointed wings, yellow turning 

 dark bluish green in drying : caruncle scarcely more than half the length of the seed. — 

 Prodr. i. 328; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 127; Chapm Fl. S3; Wheelock, I.e. 116; Chodat,!. c. 199, 

 t. 22, f. 40, 41. P. lutea, var. nana, Michx. Fl. ii. 54. P. viridescens, Walt. Car. 178; Ell. 

 Sk. ii. 186; not L. — Dry fertile soil and low coniferous woodland, S. Carolina to Florida, 



