80 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



is dïj, nearly globular, indeliiscent, bristling outwardly with stiff 

 prickles, armed at the summit with refiexed points, which gives 

 them the appearance of little harpoons. The single seed contains 

 under its coats a large fleshy embryo whose plano-convex cotyledons 

 are prolonged at the base round the superior radicle, which they 

 incompletely surround as with a case. Kramcria consists of suffru- 

 tescent plants from the tropical regions of the two Americas. 

 The broad thick-set woody root, often rich in colouring matter, is 

 sm-mounted by a small much ramified stem, and the branches bear 

 alternate leaves covered with a whitish down. They are exstipulate 

 and generally simple and entii'e. In a Mexican species, K. cyti- 

 soitles,^ they are however partly compound with three folioles 

 articulate at the base. The flowers are solitary, generally supported 

 by a peduncle more or less long, bearing at a variable height, 

 sometimes close to the calyx, two sterile lateral bractlets. Some twenty- 

 five species - belonging to this genus have been described ; but it 

 seems to us the number ought to be reduced one-half. 



The Polygalacece family is very natural except one or two genera. 

 It was established in 1815 by A. L. de Jussieu.^ Until then the 

 Polygaleic had been placed by him among the Pediculaireœ,^ while 

 Adanson, recognising much better their true aflânities, had joined 

 them to the family TithymalcaJ' JussiEU knew six of the 

 genera which we have preserved as distinct, and he joined to them 

 Tetratheca. De Candolle ^ in 1 824 admitted the family such 

 as De Jussieu had made it, adding to it Securidaca, with Sou- 

 lumca which belongs to Ruiaceœ-Quassiœ.'^ From 1828 to 1830, A. 

 S.-HiLAiRE and Moquin, in their 3Iém.oires sur la Famille des Polygaleœ^ 

 added to the preceding types the Mundtia of KuNTn,^ studying in 



1 Cat. Ic. Mar. iv. 60, t. 390.— DC. Vrodr. n. i. 76 ; iv. 240 ; vii. 255. 



7.— H. Bn. in Adaiisonia, xi. 16. ' In Mem. Mus. i. 385 {rohjyaJea;). 



2 R. et Pat. Prodr. t. 3 ; Fl. Per. i. t. 93, 91. -i Gen. (1789), 99. 

 —Hook, et Aen. Beech. Voy. Bot. 8, t. 5.— A. s Fam.'des PI. ii. (1763), 358. 

 S. H. Fl. Bras. Mer. ii. 72, t. 97.— Griseb. Fl. « Prodr. i. 321, Ord. 18. 

 Brit. W. Lid. 30.— Chap.m. Fl. S. Unit. St. 86. 7 Voy. toI. iv. 413, 601. 



— ToRR. in Fmor. Pep. Bot. t. 13.— C. Gay, Fl. » In Mém. Mus. xvii. 315 : xix. 305. 



Chit. i. 342. — Tk. et Pl. in Ann. Sc. Nat. sér. ' Nov. Gen. et Spec. i. (181S). 

 4, xvii. 144— Walp. Pep. i. 247 ; v. 67 ; Ann. 



