296 THE MILKWORT FAMILY. 



the tuft of spatulate basal ones is an easy clue to the plant's identity. In 

 low pine-barrens near Jacksonville, Fla., it is often abundant, and from there 

 occurs to Mississippi and northward. The yellow flowers turn likewise dark 

 green in drying. 



P. Baldwinii, as the two preceding species, bears its flowers in close, 

 corymbose spikes. They are, however, white, sweetly fragrant and when in 

 blow fluffy and charming. The stem is angled and abundantly leafy from 

 the base to its summit. It is also one which inhabits low pine-barrens 

 about Florida and Georgia and delays its bloom until July and August. 



YELLOW BACHELOR'S=BUTTON. ORANGE fllLKWORT 



Polygala lit tea. 



FAMILY • COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Milkwort. Orange-ytlloiv. Scentless. Florida to New Jersey. June-October. 



FUnvers : growing densely in oblong or globose terminal spikes. Wings : 

 erect; oblong-ovate, sharply pointed at the apices ; the corolla-tube minutely 

 crested. Stem leaves : alternate, lanceojate-spatulate, or oblanceolate, blunt or 

 pointed at the apex and sessiie or nearly so ; pale green; smooth, fleshy; the basal 

 ones tufted, broader and larger than the others. Stem ; six to twelve inches high, 

 erect or ascending, simple, or with the upper branches spreading. 



Although comparatively a low growing plant, there is not a brighter, gayer 

 member of the genus than the bachelor's-button, nor is there one better 

 known. Many of the natives in Florida whom I asked concerning it called it 

 the " yellow clover," because no doubt its bloom suggested to them the 

 shape of thick clover heads ; and when I pointed out the great differ- 

 ence in its leaves and protested against its being a clover, they took 

 their revenge by gathering me a large bunch to carry away. At least they 

 knew better than I that these blossoms are especially the haunts of chiggers 

 or red bugs, which would soon make my life a burden to me. Until very 

 late in the season the plant lingers in bloom,and when it occurs as far north- 

 ward as New Jersey forsakes often the sandy barrens for a life in the bogs. 



P. incarndta, pink milkwort, grows mostly in sandy, or light, dry soil and 

 also bears its delicate, rose-purple flowers in solitary spikes at the end of 

 tall, slender and glaucous stems. Their wings are elliptical and a good deal 

 shorter than the petals, which display a prominently crested keel. The leaves 

 are small, alternate and linear. 



P. criiciata, cross-leaved, or marsh milkwort, covers an extended range 

 through sandy swamps mainly along the coast and belongs to the group of 

 polygalas that bear their leaves whorled about the stem. These are in sets 

 of four, linear, or oblong-linear and mostly bluntly pointed at the apex^ 

 The cylindrical, spiked heads of rose-purple flowers often remain in bloom 

 as late as November and are nearly or quite sessile. 



