34i ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ORDER X.— POLYGALAOE^. 



Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs, sometimes twining or climbing. 

 Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or verticellatc, generally sessile, 

 simple, undivided, and often quite entire. Stipules none. Inflor- 

 escence terminal or axillary, consisting of racemes, spikes, or 

 solitary flowers. Pedicels usually articulated at tbe base, each 

 with a bract and 2 bracteoles. Flowers irregular. Sepals 5, per- 

 sistent, imbricated, very unequal ; the two innermost much larger 

 than the others, petaloid. Petals 3 or 5, caducous, hypogynous ; 

 the lowest one, or keel, usually crested at the apex, concave, and 

 often united to the two lateral ones ; the two uppermost usually 

 absent or reduced to small scales. Stamens 8, rarely 5 or 4, mono- 

 delphous, with the filaments united beyond the middle, the tube 

 so formed cohering with the petals. Anthers often in two sets of 

 4 each, erect, commonly opening by an apical pore. Ovary free, 

 2-celled (rarely by abortion 1-celled, very rarely with 3 or 5 cells). 

 Style simple, often incurved, somewhat petaloid, and divided into 

 2 lobes at the apex. Ovules usually 1 in each cell, pendulous and 

 anatvopous. Pruit a capsule, dehiscing loculicidally, or rarely 

 septicidally, but sometimes indehiscent, when it is either dry or 

 drupaceous. Seeds with a hard testa which is often hairy, gene- 

 rally with a lobed strophiole at the hilum. Albumen fleshy, 

 sometimes none. Embryo nearly straight, central, with the radicle 

 directed towards the liilum. 



GENUS I.— POIjYG AJj A. Linn. 



Sepals with the superior and two outer inferior ones small ; the 

 two lateral (wings) much larger, at first petaloid, afterwards some- 

 what herbaceous. Lowest petal concave, bent up at the apex, 

 which is commonly divided into a crest formed of small segments, 

 more rarely only 3-lobed. Stamens 8, in a tube slit on the upper 

 surface, united to the petals, and 2-lobed at the apex. Capsule 

 obovate or oblong, notched at the apex, compressed at right angles 

 to the partition and parallel to the calyx wings, dehiscing loculi- 

 cidally. Seeds oblong, generally hairy, and crowned by a 3-lobed 

 white strophiole. 



