458 POLYGALACE.E. Polyrjala. 



6 to 15 inches high, soon almost leafless below : leaves 3 to 6 lines long, scarcely a line wide : 

 pedunculate racemes rather loose and terminated even in fruit h\ tiie protruding sterile 

 imbricate-bracted apex of tlie axis : wings ovate-oblong, slightly narrower and more acute 

 than in the next, mostly conduplicate and thereby appearing still more sharply pointed, 

 commonly exhibiting uear the apex a spongy (glandular ;) tliickeuing: seeds scai-cely luilf 

 line long."— Fl. i. 671 ; Chapm. ¥\. 84; Wheelock, 1. c. 119; Chodat, 1. c. 188, t. 22, f. 13- 

 15. P. attennata, Hook. Jour. Bot. i. 195, not Xutt. — Gulf States from Florida to Louisi- 

 ana ; first coll. by Dnimmond. 

 P. brevifolia, Nitt. Erect, much branched, 6 to 10 inches high or rarely taller : leaves 

 narrowly elliptic to linear-oblong, mostly obtuse, 6 to 8 lines long, a line and a half iu 

 breadtl), the rameal commonly alternate : flowers rose-purple in pedunculate rather dense 

 spicate or capitate racemes whicii are soon obtuse tit the summit : wings broadly ovate-oblong, 

 commonly expanded and flattish, merely acutish : seeds ovoid, fully three fourths line in 

 lengtii, almost black, loosely puberulent, about equalled by the two long narrow scale-like 

 lobes of the caruncle. — Geu. ii. 89; Chapm. Fl. 84; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 

 122 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 119; Chodat, 1. c. 187, t. 22, f. 10-12. P. cruciata, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 

 127, in part. — Margins of swamps, &c.. New Jersey, where apparently common; also in 

 Florida, Chapnuin, and Mississippi at Ocean Springs, Tracij, Pollard, where in its taller 

 growtli and more apiculate racemes it approaches the last. Intermediate stations of this 

 (ace. to present knowledge) geographically dissevered species may be sought with interest. 

 Its occurrence iii Ohio, althougii mentioned in the original description, does not appear to 

 have been confirmed iu recent times. 

 P. cruciata, L. Mostly low (3 to 10 inches in height) and corymbosely branched: stem 

 wing-angled : leaves, in fours or fives, narrowly elliptic-oblong, obtuse or mucronulate, punc- 

 tate, about an inch in length, 1 to 2 lines in breadth, the uppermost usually surrounding and 

 often surpassing the short thick subsessile spicate or capitate rather dense sometimes apicu- 

 late racemes of rose-purplish to greenish white flowers (rather large for the genus) : wings 

 caudate-acuminate from broad deltoid subcordate base : seed sparingly pubescent, black or 

 nearly so, elliptic-oblong in outline, nearly equalled by the caruncle. — Spec. ii. 706 ; Gray, 

 Gen. ni. ii. 223, t. 183, f. 12, 13, & Man. ed. 1-6 ; Wheelock, 1. c. 117 ; Chodat, 1. c. 185, "t. 

 22, f. 6-9. P. cuspidata, Hook. Jour. Bot. i. 1 94, not DC. — Peal bogs, margins of swamps 

 and occasionally in drier situations. New England to Minnesota and southward to the Gulf 

 of Mexico ; fl. midsummer and early autumn. The very characteristic caudate acumination 

 of the wings is sometimes reduced or wanting [Leggett). In the Gulf States plants of taller 

 stature, and with narrower linear leaves, pedunculate inflorescences, and deeper-purple 

 flowers, may be distinguished as var. ramosior, Nash, in herb. (Florida, Duval Co., Ciirtisx, 

 no. 509, Lake Co., Nash, nos. 1210, 2192, New Smyrna, Palmer, no. 30; Alabama, Gates; 

 Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Pollard, no. 1069), but the name is not well chosen, as the de- 

 gree of branching is neither constant nor marked. 



-<— H— Flowers (homomorphous) bright yellow or orange (except in P. Baldwini), borne in 

 short thick terminal or corymbosely paniculate obtuse or apiculate spikes or racemes : 

 erect glabrous mostly showy-flowered annuals or biennials with fibrous or single and few- 

 branched roots and always alternate or basal leaves: .sepals tending to be decurrent upon 

 the thus angled or narrowly winged pedicels : species of the Middle and S. Atlantic and 

 Gulf States : wings acute or cuspidate. — Decurrentes, Chodat, 1. c. 197. 

 -H- Spicate or capitate racemes solitary or few and remote, terminating the stems or their 

 few simple branches. 



= Wings ovate-lanceolate, gradually and sharply acuminate : keel with a long crest of 

 slender bifid processes: stems low (1-J to 4 or 5 inches high), often subscapose. 

 P. nana, DC. Subacaulescent annual with slender perpendicular simple or sparingly 

 branched root and clrefly radical spatulate obtuse or mucronulate leaves: flowers very 

 numerous in compact oblong spikes bristling with the sharp-pointed wings, yellow turning 

 dark bluish green in drying: caruncle scarcely more than half the length of the seed. — 

 Prodr. i. 328 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 127 ; Chapm". Fl. 83; Wheelock, 1. c. 116 ; Chodat, 1. c 199, 

 t. 22, f. 40, 41. P. lutm, var. nana, Michx. Fl. ii. 54. P. viridescens, Walt. Car. 178; Ell. 

 Sk. ii. 186; not L. — Dry fertile soil and low coniferous woodland, S. Carolina to Florida, 



