Poh/gala. l'( )LV( iAI.AC'K.K. 449 



monly known as wings (or oIcb), larger and potaloid. PcUils o and alternate with 

 tlie sepals, or more coinniouly reduced to 3 (an od<l anterior on<! and a dorsal 

 pair) ; tlie lower |iri;il, or keel (carina) concave, often crested or Ijeaki-d, more or 

 less connate willi the others or at least adnate to the lower portion of the stami- 

 neal column. Stamens commonly H (the anterior and posterior members of the 

 theoretical 10-stamened 2-whorled androecium being suppressed) ; filaments rarely 

 free, more commonly connate into a dorsally cleft tube; antliers, erect, innate, 

 usually 2-cellcd at first but becoming unicellular by the resorption of the partition 

 wall. Carpels 2, rarely 1, or in a foreign genus 5; ovary 2(rarely l)-<<ili'd; 

 ovules (with rare exceptions) solitary in the cells, anatropr)us, pendulous. Seeds 

 albuminous or exalbuminous, commonly provided with a more or less conspicuous 

 caruncle at the hilum ; embryo straight. — A widely distributed order of which 

 more than half of the species belong to the typical genus Poh/yuhi. 



Kkameiua, La^fl. It. 195, wliiih lias often l)ecn a.>isociated with this onlor slioiiM l>e posi- 

 tively excluded from it upon the grounds admirably stated by (iray, (Jen. 111. ii. 227. There 

 api)eiirs to be no good rea.son why tiie genus should not be placed in the L^ynminosw CassitcE, 

 as by Taubert in Engl. & I'rautl, Nat. I'tiauzenf. iii. Ab. 3, 85. 



1. POLYGALA. Calyx free ; sepals very dissimilar, the lateral (inner) pair larger, pota- 

 loid. Petals rarely 5, commonly (through the suppression of one j)air) 3, united below into 

 a dorsally cleft tube ; the anterior petal strongly carinate, often crested or beaked. Stamens 

 8; filaments more or less completely united into a dorsally cleft tube adnate at the ba.xe to 

 the gamopetalous corolla. Style usu.illy bent and stigma variou.>*ly and une<inallv 2(-4)- 

 loi)ed, often tufted or cucullate-appendaged. Fruit a compressed 2-<elIed wing-margined 

 or wingless capsule; seeds solitary in the cells, pendulous, commonly hairy and in most of 

 ours conspicuously carunculate. 



2. MONNINA. Calyx as in Poli/ffala. Petals 3, nearly or quite free; the lower one cari- 

 nate, more or less inclosing the upper connivent pair; these adnate at the base to the 

 .'itaniineal tube. Fruit indchiscent, 1-2-celled, winged or wingless. 



1. POL"!^G-ALA, Tourn. Milkwort. (IloAv?, much, yaAa, milk; 

 IloAryaXoi', a name used by Dioscorides for some low shrub, reputed a stimulant 

 to lactation.) — Inst. 174, t. 79; L. Gen. no. 507; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 221, t. 

 183, 184; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 13G; Bennett, Jour. Bot. xvii. 137 et scq. ; 

 Wheelock, Mem. Torr. Club, ii. 109; Chodat, Monogr. Polyg. (Mem. Soc. 

 Phys. Hist. Nat. Genev. xxxi. pt. 2, no. 2), & in Engl. &. Prantl, Nat. Pflan- 

 zenf. iii. Ab. 4, 330. — Extensive but natural genus of more than 400 species, 

 chiefly of warm regions and about half of them American. The subdivision of 

 the genus, as here given, is essentially that of Chodat's detailed monograph. 



P. NrxKAXA, Moc. in DC Prodr. i. 330, & A. DC. Cal(|ues des Dess. t. 39, with ovate acu- 

 minate leaves, orbicular wings, and eniarginate capsules, differs widely from any sj>ecies known 

 to grow upon our Western Coast. There can be little doubt that Dr. AVatson was (piite 

 right in regarding it a Mexican plant near P. Americana while its confident identification with 

 P. cuculliita, Benth. by Chodat is not sujiported by a single cliaracter. 



§ 1. HebecXupa, Chodat. Low undershrubs with alternate leaves, cadm-ous 

 sepals, ecristate beakless keel, and ciliated, pubescent, or tomentulo.se capsule. — 

 Monogr. Polyg. 9. — "Well marked group including 3 W. Indian small-flowered 

 thick-leaved species (Bmliera, DC. Prodr. i. 331), several Mexican and S. 

 American species, and the following of our southwestern borders. 



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