MILKWORT FAMILY. Polygalacem. 



MILKWORT FAMILY. Polygalacece 



Mostly herbs with generally alternate leaves, and per- 

 fect but irregular flowers with five sepals, the two late- 

 ral ones petallike, large, and colored ; the others small. 

 The three petals are connected with each other in a tube- 

 like form ; the lower one is often crested at the tip. The 

 generally eight stamens are more or less united into one 

 or two sets and in part coherent with the lower petal, 

 but free above. Stigma curved and broad ; the anthers 

 generally cup-shaped and opening by a slit or hole at the 

 apex. Cross-fertilization effected by the agency of bees 

 and the beelike flies. 



An exceedingly dainty, low perennial 

 Fringed Milk- rising from pros trate stems and roots 

 wort or . . ■ . _, 



Flowering sometimes a foot long. The few broad, 



Wintergreen ovate, bright green leaves are crowded at 

 Polygata the summit of the stems, the lower ones 



Ma enta or reduced to the size of a mere scale - The 

 wnite leaves live through the winter and turn 



May-July a bronze red. The flowers, nearly £ inch 



long, are generally magenta or crimson- 

 magenta, and rarely white. The three petals are united 

 in a tube, the lowest one terminating in a pouch con- 

 taining the pistil and anthers, and furnished at the end 

 with a fringe or beard. This last serves as a landing plat- 

 form for bees who will naturally depress the pouch by 

 their weight ; the rigid pistil and stamens, however, re- 

 fusing to bend with the pouch are forced out through a 

 slit at the top of the latter and come in direct contact 

 with the under parts of the insect visitor. Thus cross- 

 fertilization is in a large measure secured by the pollen- 

 daubed bee brushing against the exposed stigma of the 

 next flower visited. The honeybee and the ground bees 

 of the genus Halictus and Andrenidce are the common- 

 est visitors. The little plant often bears cleistogamous 

 subterranean flowers on tiny branchlets. Erect stem 3-6 

 inches high. Common in damp, rich woods, from Me., 

 south to Ga., and west to 111. and Minn. Found at 

 Holderness, N. H. ; white specimens near Bangor, Me. 



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