ACEBACE^. 15l 



the lowest very small and subulate, and all more pr less united with the 

 stamens. Stamens united in two parcels, each with 4 anthers opening by 

 pores at the summit. Style 1, with a single stigma. Ovary and capsule 

 flat, 2-celled, with a single pendulous seed in each ceU. 



A very numerous genus, widely diifused over most parts of the globe. 

 Several of the showy south African species are often cultivated iu our 

 greenhouses. 



1. Cotutnon MilkTsrort. Polygala vulgaris, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 76, and Suppl. t. 2827, and P. amara, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2764. 



Milkwort.) 



A glabrous or nearly glabrous perennial, with a short-tufted or almost 

 woody stock, and numerous ditluse or ascending brandies, fi-om an mch or 

 two to near a foot long. It will also occasionally flower the first year, so as 

 to appear annual. Leaves crowded at the base, the lowest obovate or even 

 orbicular, especially in young plants, the upper ones oblong-lanceolate, or 

 even linear, 2 or 3 lines to near an iucli long. Flowers usually bright blue 

 or pink, hanging on short pedicels in elegant terminal racemes, with a small 

 bract at the base of each pedicel. Three outer sepals small, linear, and 

 greenish, the 2 wings twice as large, obovate or oblong, coloured and elegantly 

 veined ; after flowering tliey lie flat on the capsule, but become greener. 

 Petals much smaller, the 2 lateral oblong-linear, the lowest keel-shaped, and 

 tipped with a little crest. Style dilated at the top. Capsule green, orbi- 

 cular, surrounded by a narrow wing, uotched at the top Seeds oblong, 

 downy. 



In meadows and pastures, on banks, under hedges, etc., throughout 

 Euro]3e and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in Britain. 

 Fl. all summer. It varies much in the relative size of tlie lower and upper 

 leaves, m the size and colour of the flowers, in the veins and the breadth of 

 the wings, etc., and many forms which have appeared constant in particular 

 locaUties, have at various tunes been characterized as species.* 



XXI. THE MAPLE TRIBE. ACEEACE.^. 



(A Tribe of the Sapindus family or SapindacecB.) 



The Maple tribe corresponds to the Linnean genus Acer, 

 which modern botanists have broken up into two or three, by 

 the sepai-ation of a few North American or East Indian species. 

 The whole group consists, however, but of very few species, 

 ranging over the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. 



The true SapindacecB are mostly tropical trees or lofty chmbers, and are 

 seldom to be met with even in our hothouses ; but the Horsechestnuts {Ms- 

 cuius, Linn.), so much planted in our parks and grounds, form another dis- 

 tinct tribe of the same famdy, or, according to some botanists, the small 

 adjoining family of Hippocastanece, which, like the Maple tribe, contains a 

 small number of trees or shrubs from the northern hemisphere. Tlie Bladder- 

 nut of our shrubberies {Staphi/lea pinnata, Eng. Bot. t. 1560), from central 



* See Babington's Manual, 4th edit. pp. 40 and 41, for three of these proposed species 

 considered as British. 



