86 FOLYGALACE.E. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 



■ 



name, from ndXvs, much, and yd\a, milk, from a fancied property of its in- 

 creasing this secretion.) 



* Biennial (6'- 12' high) : flowers yellow : crest of the keel small. 



1. P. lufea, L. Flowers in solitary ovate or oblong heads, terminating the 

 stem or simple branches {bright orange-yellow); leaves (1'- 2' long) obovate or 

 spatulate ; lobes of the caruncle nearly as long as the seed. — Sandy swamps, New- 

 Jersey and southward, near the coast. June- Sept. — Stems at first simple. 

 Head of flowers f in diameter, showy. 



2. P. ranaosa, Ell. Flowers (citron-yellow) in numerous short and dense 

 spike-like racemes collected in a flat-topped compound cyme ; leaves oblong-linear, 

 the lowest spatulate or obovate ; seeds ovoid, minutely hairy, twice the length of 

 the caruncle. (P. cymosa, Poir., not of Walt. P. corymbosa, Nutt.) — Damp 

 pine-barrens, New Jersey 1 Delaware, and southward. — Flowers turning green 

 in drying. (The allied P. cymosa, Walt., which is P. graminifolia, Poir., P. 

 attenuate, Nutt., P. acutifolia, Tort. §■ Gray, — known by its simpler cymes, 

 stem naked above, narrower leaves, and globular seeds with no caruncle, — 

 probably occurs in S. Virginia.) 



* * Annual : flowers purple or white, in spikes ; no subterranean blossoms : crest of 



the keel minute, except in Nos. 3, 9, and 10. 



-i- Leaves all alternate or scattered : flowers purple or flesh-color. 



3. P. ilicai'ttaia, L. Glaucous ; stem slender, simple or sparingly 

 branched (1° high) ; leaves small, linear-awl-shaped; spike oblong or cylindri- 

 cal; wings much shorter than the conspicuously crested corolla; claws of the petals 

 united in a very long and slender cleft tube ; caruncle 2-lobed, longer than the stalk 

 of the hairy seed. — Dry soil, Maryland and Ohio to Wisconsin and southward. 

 July. 



4. P. sasigtBiliea, L. Stem branched at the top (&'-10' high) ; leaves 

 oblong-linear ; spikes roundish or oblong, dense, very obtuse ; wings broadly ovate, 

 obtuse; caruncle almost as long as the seed. (P. purpurea, Nutt. ) — Sandy and 

 moist ground; common. July -Sept. — Spikes £' thick, reddish-purple: the 

 axis, as in Nos. 5 and 6, beset with the persistent awl-shaped scaly bracts after 

 the flowers have fallen. 



5. P. fastigiata, Nutt. Stem slender, at length much branched above ; 

 leaves linear ; spikes short ; wings ovate-oblong, tapering at t/ie base into distinct 

 claws; caruncle as long as, and nearly enveloping, the stalk-like base of the minutely 

 hairy seed. (P. sanguinea, Ton. &■ Gr., cxcl. syn. ; not of Nutt., nor L.) — 

 Pine barrens of New Jersey (Nuttall) to Kentucky and southward. — Spikes 

 looser, and the rose-purple flowers much smaller, than in No. 4, brighter-colored 

 than in the next, which it most resembles. 



6. P. mittallii, Torr. & Gr. (Fl. I, p. G70, excl. syn., & descr.) Stem 

 branched above (4' -9' high); leaves linear; spikes oblong, dense ; wings ellip- 

 tical, on very short claws ; caruncle small and applied to one side of the stalk-like base 

 of the very hairy seed. (P. sanguinea, Nutt., not of L. P. Mariana, &c, Pluk., 

 t. 437. P. ambigua, Torr. fr Gr., Fl, not of Nutt.) — Diy sandy soil, coast of 

 Massachusetts to Penn. and southward. Aug. — Spikes i' in diameter; the 

 flowers light purple and greenish, duller-colored than in the last, with thicker 



