160 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Leaves all alternate 



Petals united into a tube which is cleft and about one-fourth of an inch long; 



flowers pink 8 P. incarnata 



Petals not conspicuously united into a tube 



Spikes ovoid to globose; bracts persistent; flowers rose-purple to white 



9 P. viridescens 

 Spikes cylindric 



Leaves oblanceolate to linear, 2 to 6 lines long; flowers greenish to 



purplish 10 P. nuttallii 



Leaves lanceolate, i to 2 inches long; flowers white to greenish 



ii P. senega 



Orange Milkwort; Wild Bachelor's-button 



Polygala lutea Linnaeus 



Plate I23a 



Stems annual, smooth, tufted from fibrous roots, erect or ascending, 

 sometimes becoming branched, 6 to 12 inches high. Stem leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate, pointed or blunt, three-fourths to i| inches long, one-fourth 

 of an inch wide or less, entire; basal leaves broader and usually larger, 

 obovate or spatulate, blunt. Flowers in terminal, blunt, spikelike racemes 

 which are dense and ovoid or oblong in shape, one-half to i^ inches long, 

 one-half to three-fourths of an inch thick. Individual flowers about one- 

 fourth of an inch long, orange-yellow, preserving their color in drying; 

 wings oblong-ovate, abruptly pointed; crest of the corolla tube minute; 

 caruncle lobes linear, about equaling the hairy seed, or shorter. 



In pine-barren depressions and swamps, Long Island to New Jersey 

 and eastern Pennsylvania to Florida and Louisiana. Flowering from 

 June to August or September. 



Cross-leaved or Marsh Milkwort 



Polygala cruciata Linnaeus 



Plate u.il) 



A small annual, 3 to 1 5 inches tall, with three or four alternate branches 

 above, the stems angled or square. Leaves all on the stem and mostly 



