250 XXIII. POLYGALE^. 



FLOWERS irregular. PETALS kypogynous, unequal. STAMEN.- usually double the 

 number of the petals. ANTHERS 1- (rarely 2-) celled, opening at the top by 1-2 pores. 

 OVARY ^-celled. OVULES pendulous, anatropous. FRUIT a fleshy capsule, rarely 

 indehiscent. EMBRYO albuminous or exalbuminous. 



HERBS or UNDERSHRUBS, sometimes twining, or erect, sometimes climbing 

 SHRUBS, rarely arborescent, glabrous, cottony or velvety, hairs not stellate. LEAVES 

 alternate, rarely opposite, simple, entire. FLOWERS 2 , irregular, solitary, spiked or 

 racemed, or rarely panicled, axillary or terminal ; pedicels usually jointed at the base, 

 bracteate and 2-bracteolate. SEPALS 5, free, imbricate, 2 inner largest, often winged 

 and petaloid. PETALS 3 or 5, hypogynous, the 2 lateral free, or united at their base 

 with the lower, concave or galeate (keel), in the gamopetalous corolla split behind, 

 rarely j upper 2 sometimes equal to the lateral, enveloping the keel in aestivation, 

 sometimes small, scale-like, or (Securidaca). STAMENS 8, rarely 5-4 (Salomonia), 

 inserted on the receptacle ; filaments rarely free (Xanthophyllum), usually monadel- 

 phous, forming a sheath split on its upper edge, and more or less united out- 

 side with the petals; anthers erect, basifixed, 1- (rarely 2-) celled (Xanthophyllum, 

 Securidaca), opening at the top by a pore (rarely 2), more or less oblique; pollen of 

 Polygala ovoid, external membrane splitting in longitudinal bands, allowing the 

 inner membrane to protrude, and resembling the staves of a barrel. DISK small, 

 often 0, or rarely expanded into an imperfect unilateral ring. OVARY free, with 2 

 antero-posterior cells, rarely 1 -celled by arrest (Securidaca), very rarely 3-5-celled 

 (Trigoniastrum, Moutabca) ; style terminal, curved, dilated at the top, undivided or 

 2-4-lobed ; stigma, terminal, or situated between the lobes of the style ; ovules 

 pendulous, usually solitary in each cell, or rarely twin, collateral (Kramtria), or very 

 rarely 2-6, scattered (XantJiophyllum), anatropous, raphe ventral. FRUIT usually a 

 loculicidal or indehiscent capsule, a drupe (Carpolobia, Mundtia), or samara (Securi- 

 daca, Trigoniastrum). SEEDS pendulous ; testa crustaceous, often velvety (Come- 

 spermum) ; hilum often strophiolate (Pali/gala) ; a Ibumen sometimes copious, fleshy or 

 mucilaginous, sometimes scanty or 0. EMBRYO axile, straight ; cotyledons plano- 

 convex, fleshy and thick in the exalbuminous seeds ; radicle short, superior. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 



Polygaln. Comespernm. JJredemeyera. Secnridaca. Carpolobia. 



Moutabea. Xanthopbyllum. Krameria. Salomonia. Muraltia. 



The affinities of Polygalcce are obscure. They were formerly placed near Rhinanthea on account of 

 the irregular hypogynous apparently mouopetalous corolla, the two-celled ovary, and compressed capsule ; 

 but their other characters are all opposed to this affinity. They have since been compared with Papilio- 

 nacea ; but in these, besides the perigynous insertion and a host of other differences, the odd petal is 

 next the axis, whilst it is opposite it in Polygakcc. The affinity with Sapindaceer is also very distant, 

 and almost confined to the hypogynous imbricate and often irregular corolla, the ]-2-ovuled ovarian cells, 

 ^iuiph style, c-ipsular or samaroid fruit, and often arillate or etrophiolate seeds. There is a much closer 

 affinity with Tre>nandre<e: similar habit, ovary with two one-ovuled cells, pendulous ovules, compressed 

 r;ipsule, strophiolate seeds, one-celled authors opening by pores, pollen-granules opening by longitudinal 

 slits; but in Trcinandrcfr the flower is regular, the (estivation of the calyx is valvate, the stamens are in 



