POLYGALEJE. 4<) 



scarcely more than half an inch in breadth, alternate, petiolate, 

 ovato-lanceolate, acuminate with the apex blunt, acute at the 

 base, entire, coriaceous, glabrous, shining, nerveless: petiole 

 short, puberulous. Racemes axillary, solitary : peduncle shorter 

 than the petiole : flowers rather small, white, shortly pedicelled. 

 Calycine sepals 5, imbricated during sestivation, unequal, united 

 at the base : the 3 outer sepals small, ovate, acute ; the 2 inner 

 larger, orbiculate, concave. The two upper petals pubescent, 

 ciliated ; the lower one concave at the apex, ciliated, green. 

 Stamens monadelphous : anthers white. Ovary stipitate, orbicu- 

 late, compressed, slightly puberulous : style erect : stigma blunt. 

 Capsule obcordate, glabrous, 2-seeded ; seed oval, arillated. 



III. SECURIDACA. 



Calycine sepals 5, with the 2 inner ones petaliform. 

 Petals 5, slightly connected at the base ; 3 of them 

 united into a 3-lobed keel ; the other 2 oblong. Sta- 

 mens 8, diadelphous. Capsule ovate, indehiscent, 

 one-celled, expanded at the apex into a leaf-like wing. 

 Seed pendulous from the apex of the cell : albumen 

 none. De Cand. 



Suffruticose plants, with alternate leaves, of an ovate or ob- 

 long figure, and with the flowers racemose. Name, derived 

 from the Latin, SECURIS a hatchet, in allusion to the form of 

 the pod. 



1 . Securidaca virgata. Purple Securidaca. 

 Glabrous, stem sarmentose, branches virgate, leaves 

 elliptic rounded at the apex subacute at the base, ra- 

 cemes terminal, wing of the capsule rounded. 



Su-artz, Fl. Ind. Occ. III. 123l.J3rowne, 287 Plum. t. 

 248. f. 1. 



HAB. Common. 



FL. November February. 



Ascending to a considerable height, supporting itself on 

 neighbouring trees and shrubs : branches alternate, divaricating, 

 long and twiggy, terete, glabrous. Leaves l|-2 inches in 

 length, elliptic, very obtuse at the apex, subacute at the base, 

 occasionally subemarginate, concave beneath, puberulous to the 

 glass on both sides, obscurely nerved : petiole about 3 lines in 

 length, and, like the extremities of the branches, puberulous. 

 Racemes terminal, subdivided : branches distichally arranged, 

 subsimple, many-flowered : pedicels nearly an inch in length, 

 filiform, coloured, puberulous, 1 -flowered, articulated on a pro- 

 minent excavated tubercle on the common peduncle. Flowers 



VOL. r. E 



