Polygala furcata, Royle, and its Allies. 
BY 
WILLIAM GRANT CRAIB, M.A., 
Lecturer on Forest Botany and Indian Forest Trees 
in the University of Edinburgh. 
ALTHOUGH Hasskarl * had pointed out that the name Polygala 
triphylla was already occupied for a S. African plant,+ Bennett ¢ 
in elaborating the species of Polygala from India retained Don’s 
name P. triphylla for an Indian plant. Unfortunately Hass- 
karl in suggesting the new specific name Hamiltonii for Don’s 
species followed Royle, and described under that name a totally 
different plant from Don’s P. triphylla. Succeeding authors 
have more or less perpetuated Hasskarl’s mistake. 
Hamilton named a Narainhetty plant collected by himself 
Polygala triphylla, but did not publish the species. Don § 
published the species later under Hamilton’s manuscript name, 
and quoted a Wallichian plant in addition to that collected by 
Hamilton. Presumably the Wallichian plant quoted is the one 
which Wallich quoted in his catalogue as P. glaucescens. For 
present purposes we may reduce the main features claimed by 
Don for his species to: stem 2-3 inches high, trichotomous at 
the apex, flowers small, yellow. 
Fourteen years later Royle || enumerated and figured two 
species of Polygala: P. triphylla and P. furcata. A glance at 
Royle’s figure of P. triphylla shows that it disagrees with Don’s 
description, in that the flowers are not yellow and that the stem 
branches from the base. Royle’s figure of his P. furcata agrees, 
however, with the main features of Don’s species as quoted 
above, viz. the stem branches only at the apex and the flowers 
are yellow. 
In 1863 Hasskarl * described three Indian species under the 
genus Semeiocardium: S. Hamiltoni, S. hyalinum, and S. 
glaucescens. According to his synonymy Hasskarl intended 
* Hasskarl in Miq. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat., i, p. 151 (1863). 
| Polygala triphylla, Burm 
~ Bennett in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind., i, p. 20r (1872). 
§ D. Don, Prodr - Fl. Nepal.,p. 200 (#823). 
|| Royle, Il., t. 19, B. et D. (18 39). 
(Notes, R.B.G., Edin., No. LIV, October 1919.] 
