POLYGALA FAMILY 145 



the lateral ones oblique. Cymes compound. Flowers greenish. Sta- 

 mens mostly 4 ; filaments bearded ; key about 1 in. in diameter; wing 

 notched, strongly netted-veined. Rocky banks; often cultivated.* 



53. POLYGALACE.S;. Polygala Family 



Herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate or nearly opposite, with- 

 out stipules, simple. Flowers not actinomorphic. Sepals un- 

 equal, the 2 inner wing-shaped and petal-like. Petals 3-5, 

 hypogynous, the 2 lateral ones often united with the hooded 

 lower one into a tube, split open at the base behind. Stamens 

 8 ; filaments united into a split sheath, which is usually joined 

 to the petals ; anthers usually opening by pores. Ovary 2- 

 celled, 2-ovuled. [A difficult family for the beginner.] 



POLYGALA L. 



Herbs or shrubs. Flowers racemed or spiked, some of them 

 often cleistogamous. Petals united below to the stamen 

 sheath. Anthers opening by transverse pores. 



1. P. paucifolia Willd. Fringed Polygala, Babies' Toes, May 

 Wings. A low perennial herb, with branches 3-4 in. high, from a 

 slender, creeping rootstock. Lower leaves scattered, small and scale- 

 like, the upper ones with petioles, crowded near the tips of the 

 branches, ovate or nearly so. Flowers of two kinds, the oleistoga^ 

 mous whitish, fertile, borne underground along the rootstock, the 

 terminal flowers large and showy (nearly an inch long), rose-purple, 

 with a beautiful fringed crest. Woods, especially N. and E. 



2. P. Senega L. Seneca Snakeroot. A perennial herb, with 

 several erect stems arising from stout, hard, knotty rootstocks.. 

 Leaves lanceolate, oblong or lance-ovate, sessile. Flowers all alike> 

 small, white, in solitary close spikes. Rocky woods. 



54. EUPHORBIACE.a;. Spurge Family 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, usually with a milky, more or less 



• acrid and sometimes poisonous juice. Flowers mostly apetal- 



ous, monoecious or dioecious (Fig. 23). Ovary usually 3-celled, 



with 1 or 2 ovules in each cell ; stigmas as many as the cells 



