FRANKENIACE^E. 41 



much smaller, about ^ inch long, with the wings as naiTow as those 

 of P. eu-vulgaris, vai*. oxyptera, and the nerves of the Avings are also 

 more strongly marked than in any of the other British forms. The 

 central nerve is unbranched, the lateral ones with a few free veins 

 on the outer side. In the station where it was first discovered the 

 flowers are purplish pink ; in the second, fi'om which I have not 

 seen specimens, Mr. Baker informs me that they are blue. The 

 taste of this plant is bitter, as in the Continental P. amara, if, 

 indeed, that plant be distinct from P, austriaca. According to 

 Reichenbach, P. amara differs by its larger flowers with the corolla 

 longer than the wings, and the style with blunt nearly entire lobes. 

 I have not seen specimens of Reichenbach's plant, and there seems 

 to be much confusion about the name P. amara, which has been 

 apjilied to P. calcarea, P. austriaca, &c. 



It is certainly difficult to settle the limits of the species in this 

 genus, from the great difficulty of cultivating them, and so testing 

 the permanence of the foi'ms. Many of the differences may be only 

 those dependent on gro'O'ing in special situations ; as, for instance, 

 the form I have made a variety, "ciliata," of P. eu-vulgaris, is usually 

 regarded as a species ; but when we consider the extreme dryness of 

 the places where it grows, and also that dryness would tend to pro- 

 duce those very characters which are relied on for distinguishing it 

 from P. vulgaris, is it not probable that in this instance the special 

 habitat has produced the difference ? and it may be the same in other 

 cases. 



Mr. Bentham considers all the British Polygalse belong to one 

 species, to which he gives the name of P. vulgaris. 



Small Bitter Milkwort. 



French, Pohjgala d'Autriche. 



ORDEE XL— FRANKENIACE^. 



Small branched undershrubs or herbs with jointed stems and 

 small opposite or verticellate leaves, often -with revolute edges, 

 and frequently fasciculate leaves in the axils of the primary ones. 

 Stipules none. Flowers rose-colour, flesh-colour, or purple, regular, 

 perfect, sessile in the forks of the branches or on the termination 

 of short leafy shoots, frequently arranged so as to form a dense 

 leafy terminal cyme. Calyx persistent, with the sepals united into 

 a tube 4- or G-toothed at the apex. Petals 4 to 6, hypogynous, 

 free, with a long membrane-bordered claw and spreading lamina). 



VOL. II. G 



