126 POLYGALA LUTEA. YELLOW MILK-WORT. 



roundings and rendering diem lovable. There are few plants 

 which seem to have so great a power of aiding the beauty of a 

 piece of wild scenery as our yellow milk-wort. It is a rare color 

 among our wild flowers, and it gives a peculiar richness to all the 

 rest. 



The genus to which it belongs is a very old one, a European 

 species having been known as Polygala for many centuries. The 

 particular species is P. vulgaris, and grows over most of FAirope. 

 The name is from the Greek polys much, and gala milk, and 

 hence we have the common English name of milk-wort. Au- 

 thors do not seem to have been as careful to be right in matters 

 of history as in most other matters connected with plants, and 

 so we frequently have contradictions which must often puzzle 

 the youncr student who desires to be accurate in all thino^s. Thus 

 in the derivation oi Polygala, some authors, as old Gerarde for 

 instance, tell us it was so called because it causes an increase of 

 the milk in the breasts of nurses ; and others, as in most of our 

 modern text-books, that it helps the yield of milk in the catde 

 that feed on it. Others say it is because some of the species 

 abound in a milky juice. Dr. Asa Gray, in "School Botany," 

 observes on this: "but the plants have no milky juice at all." 

 Then again Dr. M. T. Masters tells us : " Some of the milk- 

 worts moreover abound in milky juice at the roots, but rfie name 

 is in all probability derived from the increase which it gives to 

 the lacteal secretions of cows." In ancient times it had some 

 religious associations. The hermits in the European Alps al- 

 ways carefully planted it round their habitations. In Catholic 

 countries the three days before Easter Sunday are called roga- 

 tion days, and are marked by public religious ceremonies; and 

 Mrs. Paterson notes in her "Folk-Lore" that in the processions 

 on these days bunches of the milk-wort were carried, and hence 

 it is known in these places as "Rogation-flower." Rogation 

 days, coming in Passion week, made it also sought after for Pas- 

 sion ceremonies, and known as " Passion-flower." 



Polygala lulea, the species we now describe, has not the for- 



