POLYGALA. 



son to be a poisonous plant so much dreaded by the Javanese 

 that they are unwilling to touch it. 



256. P. glandulosa HBK. v. 4-04. t. 510. is emetic. Martius. 



SOULAMEA. 



Sepals 5, the 3 outer very small, the 2 inner larger, concave. 

 Petal 1, concave. Stamens 6? Capsule samaroid, indehiscent, 

 compressed, corky, orbicular, emarginate, 2-celled. 



257. S. amara DC.prodr. i. 335. Rex amaroris Rumf. Amb. 

 ii. 129. t. 41. Coast of the Moluccas. 



A shrub or small tree. Branches few and brittle. Leaves oval, 

 stalked, smooth, 12 or 13 inches long, SA wide. Racemes axillary, 

 erect, rather longer than the petioles. Flowers the size of those of 

 the vine, whitish. Fruit compressed, thin at the edges, obcordate, 

 dry; seeds 2 in each cell, resembling cucumber seeds, but smaller; 

 each lying in a small cavity of the cell. All the parts, especially the 

 roots and fruit, intensely bitter (horrenda amarities Rumf.). Employed 

 in the Malayan Archipelago with extraordinary success in cholera, and 

 pleurisy, and most valuable as a febrifuge. 



MONNINA. 



Flowers resupinate. Sepals 5, deciduous ; the 2 inner wing- 

 like ; the 3 outer ovate, 2 of them being often connate. Petals 

 connate at the base, concave in the middle, often 3-toothed. 

 Stamens 8, with somewhat diaddelphous hairy filaments. Drupe 

 2-celled, 2-seeded, or by abortion 1-celled, 1-seeded, sometimes 

 surrounded by a membranous border. Seed pendulous. Herbs 

 or under shrubs of Tropical America. 



258. M. polystachya Ruiz, in Lamb, cinch. 144. t. 3. 



DC. prodr. i. 33 On the Peruvian Andes, among small 



shrubs, bushes and herbaceous plants, in cold situations. 

 (Yallhoy Masca Peruv.) 



A downy shrub. Root about 2 feet long, simple, fusiform, very pale; 

 bark about 2 lines thick, readily separating from the wood. Stem 

 erect, about 6 feet high; branches drooping, when young very downy, 

 and slightly purple. Leaves alternate, stalked, ovate-lanceolate, or 

 ovate, acute, or oblong and obtuse, quite entire, smoothish above, 

 villous beneath, about 2 inches long by 1 broad. Racemes compound, 

 terminal, nodding, villous. Calyx small, pale blue, deciduous; the 

 upper sepal ovate, acute, cymbiform, the 2 lower half-connate, shorter, 

 but of the same form, the 2 others roundish-obovate, flat, much larger. 

 Corolla keel-shaped, ventricose at the upper end, white, yellow at the 

 point. Phalanges of stamens 2, tetrandrous, inserted into the base of 

 the corolla. Ovary superior, ovate ; style simple, clavate, incurved ; 

 stigma simple, truncate. Drupe pendulous, ovate, shining, polished, 

 juicy, monospermous, about the size of a large pea. Stone bony, 

 tawny, oblong-ovate, somewhat 2-edged, uneven with excavated dots ; 

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