FRANKENIACEyt:. 



11 



much smaller, ahout ^ inch long, with the wings as narrow as those 

 of P. eu-vulgaris, var. oxyptcra^and the nerves of the wings are also 

 more stroug-ly marked than in any of the other British forms. The 

 central nerve is unhranched, the lateral ones with a few free veins 

 on the outer side. In tlie station where it was first discovered the 

 flowers are purplish pink ; in the second, from which I have not 

 seen specimens, Mr. Baker informs me that they are Ijlue. The 

 taste of this plant is hitter, as in the Continental P. amara, if, 

 indeed, that plant be distinct from P. austriaca. According to 

 Pteichenbach, P. amara differs hy its larger flowers with the corolla 

 longer than the wings, and the style with blunt nearly entire lobes. 

 I have not seen specimens of Reichenbach's plant, and there seems 

 to be much confusion about the name P. amara, which has been 

 applied to P. calcarea, P. austriaca, &c. 



It is certainly difficult to settle the limits of the species in tliis 

 genus, from the great difficulty of cultivating them, and so testing 

 the permanence of the forms. Many of the differences may be only 

 those dependent on growing in special situations ; as, for instance, 

 the form I have made a variety, "ciliata," of P. eii-vulgaris, is usually 

 regarded as a species ; but when we consider the extreme dryness of 

 thei^laces Avhere it grows, and also that dryness would tend to pro- 

 duce those very characters which are relied on for distinguishing it 

 from P. vulgaris, is it not probable that in this instance the special 

 habitat has produced the difference ? and it may be the same in other 

 cases. 



Mr, Bcntham considers all the British Polygaloe belong to one 

 species, to which he gives the name of P. vulgaris. 



Small Bitter Illlhwort. 



French, Poh/gala (V Autriche. 



ORDER XL— FRANKENIACEiE. 



Small branched undershrubs or herbs with jointed stems and 

 small opposite or verticellate leaves, often with revolute edges, 

 and frequently fasciculate leaves in the axils of the primary ones. 

 Stipules none. Plowers rose-colour, flesh-colour, or purple, regular, 

 perfect, sessile in the forks of the branches or on the termination 

 of short leafy shoots, frequently arranged so as to form a dense 

 leafy terminal cyme. Calyx persistent, with the sepals united into 

 a tube 4- or G-toothed at the apex. Petals 4 to 6, hypogynous, 

 free, with a long membrane-bordered claw and spreading laminae. 



VOL. II. a 



