480 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



warm and temperate regions. Examples : — Polygala, Mundia, 

 Monnina, Xanthopyllum, Soulamea. There are about 20 genera, 

 and 490 species. 



Properties and Uses. — The greater part of the plants of this 

 order are bitter and acrid, and their roots milky; hence they 

 are frequently tonic, stimulant, and febrifugal. Others are emetic, 

 purgative, diuretic, sudoritic, or expectorant. A few species have 

 edible fruits, and others abound in a saponaceous principle. 

 The following are the more important plants of the order: — 



Poll/gala.— Many sfiecies of this genus have bitter properties, as P. amara, 

 rubella, vulgaris, and major; they have been used as tonics, stimulants, dia- 

 phoretics, &c. Polygala Senega, the Senega Snake-root. — The root of this 

 species wa<! first introduced into medicine as an antidote to the bites of snakes. 

 Various other species of Polygala have been reputed to possess similar proper- 

 ties, but they are general!} considered as altogether useless in such cases. Tiie 

 root is officinal in this country, where it is used either in large doses, as an 

 emetic and cathartic, or in small doses as a sialologue, expectorant, diaphoretic, 

 diuretic, and emmenagogue. Its principal virtues are due to the presence of a 

 very acrid, solid substance, which has been called Senegin, Polygalin, and 

 Polygalic Acid. P. sanguinea a.x\A purpurea, m North America; P. Serpen, 

 taria at the Cape; P. Charticebuxus in Europe; P. crolalarioides in the 

 Himalayas, and other species, are said to possess somewhat similar properties, 

 and one species, P. venenosa., a native of Java, has the acrid principle in so 

 concentrated a state, as to render it poisonous P.tinctoria, an Arabian 

 species, is used for dyeing. 



Monnina polystachya and salicifolia — The bark of the root of these plants 

 is especially remaikable for the presence ot a saponaceous principle; it is used 

 in Peru as a substitute for soap, and for cleaning and polishing silver. It is 

 moreover reputed to be a valuable medicine in diarrhoea and similar diseases. 



Soulamea amara, a native of Molucca, is intensely bitter, and is said to be a 

 valuable febrifuge, and also a medicine, which has been employed with very 

 great success in cholera and pleurisy. 



Natural Order 42. KRAMERiACEiE. — The Rhatany Order. 

 — Diagnosis. — This natural order comprises but the single 

 genus Krameria. Lindley and some other botanists still retain 

 it in the order Polygalaceoe, to which it was formerly always 

 referred ; but Krameria appears certainly to present sufficient 

 claims to separation from that order. The Krameriacecs re- 

 semble the Polygalacea in their exstipulate leaves; in having 

 hypogynous unsymmetrical flowers; in their few stamens with 

 porous dehiscence; and in their definite pendulous ovules. They 

 are distinguished from the PoIygalacecB in their flowers not pre- 

 senting a falsely papilionaceous arrangement; in their stamens 

 being 1, .3, or 4, and distinct; in their ovary being 1 -celled, 

 or incompletely 2-celled ; and in their exafbuminous seeds. 

 By Brauii and some other botanists, the genus Krameria has 

 been referred to Leguminos^e. 



Distribution, Sfc. — Found in the warm and temperate regions 

 of Central America and South America. Krameria is the only 

 genus; it contains 14 species. 



Properties and Uses. — The roots of the different species of 

 Krameria arc intensely astringent ; those of Krameria triandra 

 are officinal in our ])harmacopceias. They are commonly known 

 under tlie name of Rliatany-roots. But little, if any, however, of 

 the root of this species is now imported into Europe, our supplies 



