31 ENGLISU BOTANY. 



ORDER X— POLYGALACEiE. 



Herbs, iindershrubs or sliruLs, sometimes twining or climbing. 

 Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or verticellate, generally sessile, 

 simple, undivided, and often quite entire. Stipules none. Inflor- 

 escence terminal or axillary, consisting of racemes, spikes, or 

 solitary flowers. Pedicels usually articulated at the base, each 

 with a bract and 2 bracteoles. Flowers irregular. Sepals 5, per- 

 sistent, imbricated, very unequal ; the two innermost much larger 

 than the others, petaloid. Petals 3 or 5, caducous, hypogynous ; 

 the lowest one, or keel, usually crested at the apex, concave, and 

 often united to the two lateral ones ; the two uppermost usually 

 absent or reduced to small scales. Stamens 8, rarely 5 or 4, mono- 

 delphous, with the filaments united beyond the middle, the tube 

 so formed cohering with the petals. Anthers often in two sets of 

 4 each, erect, conmionly opening by an apical pore. Ovary free, 

 2-celled (rarely by abortion 1-celled, very rarely with 3 or 5 cells). 

 Style simple, often incurved, somewhat petaloid, and divided into 

 2 lobes at the apex. Ovules visually 1 in each cell, pendulous and 

 anatropous. Pruit a capsvile, dehiscing loculicidally, or rarely 

 septicidally, but sometimes indehiscent, when it is cither dry or 

 drupaceous. Seeds T.'ith a hard testa which is often hairy, gene- 

 rally Avith a lobed strophiole at the hilum. Albumen fleshy, 

 sometimes none. Embryo nearly straight, central, with the radicle 

 directed towards the hilum. 



GENUS J.— P O L Y G A L A. L 



11171. 



Sepals with the superior and two outer inferior ones small ; the 

 two lateral (wings) much larger, at first petaloid, afterwards some- 

 what herbaceous. Lowest petal concave, bent up at the apex, 

 which is commonly divided into a crest formed of small segments, 

 more rarely only 3-lobed. Stamens 8, in a tube slit on the upper 

 surface, united to the petals, and 2-lobed at the apex. Capsule 

 obovate or oblong, notched at the apex, compressed at right angles 

 to the partition and parallel to the calyx wings, dehiscing loculi- 

 cidally. Seeds oblong, generally baii-y, and crowned by a 3-lobed 

 white strophiole. 



