346 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [Volume 25 



Polygala paucifolia quadrijlora Raf. Med. Fl. 2: 64, nomen nudum. 1830. 



Polygala paucifolia albi/lora Raf. Med. Fl. 2: 64, nomen nudum. 1830. 



Polygala pauciflora alba Eights; Beck, Bot. U. S. 46. 1833. 



Polygala paucifolia albiflora Farwell, Asa Gray Bull. 2: 48. 1894. 



Trichlisperma paucifolia Nieuwl. Am. Midi. Nat. 3: 181. 1914. 



Polygala paucifolia vestita Fernald, Rhodora 22: 32. 1920. 



Polygala paucifolia f. alba House, Bull. N. Y. State Mus. 219-220: 238. 1920. 



Perennial with slender running rootstocks bearing short racemes of cleistogamous flowers 

 and scattered erect or ascending stems; stems sparsely incurved-puberulous above, simple, 

 5-13 cm. high; leaves below apex of stem few, scattered, almost scale-like, 2-8 mm. long, those 

 at apex of stem 2-6, approximate, alternate, elliptic to oval, acute to obtuse at each end, 

 1-nerved and feather-veined, ciliolate, above incurved-puberulous along costa or sometimes on 

 surface, rarely densely canescent-pilose, beneath glabrous, thin, 1-4.7 cm. long, 7-20 mm. wide; 

 petioles 4-7 mm. long; flowers 1-3 in a terminal subsessile raceme, its axis only 1-2 mm. long; 

 pedicels 6-9.5 mm. long; sepals ovate to oval-ovate, hyaline, glabrous, 3-5 mm. long; wings 

 rosy-purplish, rarely white, obovate, 13-17 mm. long, 6.5-7.5 mm. wide, broadly rounded or 

 emarginulate, long-cuneate at base, glabrous; keel 13-19 mm. long, crested on the lower side 

 of the blunt tip, the crest flabellately many-lobed; stamens 6; cleistogamous flowers much 

 reduced; capsule orbicular or depressed-orbicular, narrowly winged, veined, 5-7 mm. long and 

 wide; seed long-pilose, 3-3.8 mm. long; aril glabrous, 3-4 mm. long, the umbo corneous, the 

 3 scarious lobes linear, loosely appressed, the dorsal and sometimes the lateral equaling or 

 exceeding the seed. 



Type locality: Pennsylvania. 



Distribution: Anticosti and New Brunswick to Saskatchewan, and southward to Virginia, 

 the mountains of Georgia, and Tennessee. 



Illustrations: W. Bart. Fl. N. Am. pi. 56, f. 1; Bot. Mag. pi. 2852; Raf. Med. Fl. pi. 75; 

 A. Gray, Gen. IH. pi. 184; A. Gray, Struct. Bot./. 789-795; Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve 31 (2) 2 : pi. 18, 

 f. 35-37; Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. /. 2288, ed. 2. /. 2710. 



XII. Timutua. ^Herbaceous annuals or perennials; sepals free, herbaceous, persistent; 

 wings petaloid, persistent; keel with a fimbriate crest; capsule unmargined, or narrowly and 

 equally margined on both cells, or rarely more prominently margined on the lower cell. 



107. Polygala gracillima S. Wats. Proc. Am. 

 Acad. 22: 398. 1887. 



Very slender erect glabrous annual, 9-21 cm. high; leaves in 1 or 2 whorls of 3 below, obo- 

 vate, 3-3.5 mm. long, the others scattered, linear, cuspidate, 2-7 mm. long, 0.3-0.6 mm. wide; 

 racemes very slenderly conic-cylindric, dense, 6-28 mm. long, 2-2.6 mm. thick; pedicels 0.2 

 mm. long; bracts persistent, lance-subulate, 0.8 mm. long; flowers white or rosy; sepals ovate 

 to oval, 0.6 mm. long; wings oblong-oval, 1.3 mm. long, 0.7 mm. wide, rounded; keel 1-1.1 

 mm. long, the crest of 2 lobes on each side; capsule suborbicular, 1.1 mm. long; seed black, 

 glabrous, ellipsoid-fusiform, striate, 0.5 mm. long; aril extremely minute; stamens 6. 



Type locality: Rio Blanco, Jalisco. 



Distribution: Sinaloa to Morelos and Michoacan; Guatemala. 



Illustrations: Mem. Soc. Phvs. Geneve 31(2) 2 : pi. 23, f. 22-24;'Contt. Gray Herb. 47: 

 pi. 2, f. 73, 73a. 



108. Polygala decidua Blake, Contr. Gray 

 Herb. 47: 97. 1916. 



Slender sparsely branched erect glabrous annual, 2.2-3 dm. high; leaves all alternate, 

 linear, acute, 8-10 mm. long, 0.6-0.7 mm. wide, erect; racemes cylindric, acute, rather loose, 

 4-6 mm. thick, the axis 1-10 cm. long; bracts quickly deciduous; pedicels 0.6-0.9 mm. long; 

 flowers rosy; sepals ovate to ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, 0.8-1 mm. long; wings spatulate-obo- 

 vate, 2-2.3 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, obtuse, 3-nerved; keel 1.8-2 mm. long, the crest on each 

 side of a lanceolate lamella and a trifid lobe; capsule elliptic, 2 mm. long; seed cylindric, 

 glabrous, puncticulate in lines, 1.2 mm. long; aril very minute. 



Type locality: Near City of Durango, Durango. 

 Distribution: Known only from the type locality. 

 Illustration: Contr. Gray Herb. 47: pi. 2,f. 74, 74a. 



