51 
ORDER XV. POLYGALACEA, 
Shrubs or herbaceous plants: leaves generally alternate ot 
opposite, exstipulate: flowers usually in racemes: pedicels: tri- 
bracteolate: sepals 5, irregular, distinct, 2 interior (wings) 
usually petaloid and alternate with the upper and lower ones, 
imbricated in estivation: petals hypogynous, unequal, usually 
free, one being inferior and larger than the rest, the others 
being alternate with the upper and lateral sepals, o¢casionally 
there are 5, in which case the two additional ones are very small 
and situated between the wings and lower sepals: the keel is 
sometimes entire and crested, or else 3-lobed and without a 
crest: stamens hypogynous, usually united into a tube, unequal 
and ascending, occasionally 4, distinct: anthers 1-celled, open- 
ing by a terminal pore: ovary usually 2-celled, with axile pla- 
cent: style sometimes curved, sometimes hooded at the apex: 
fruit occasionally indehiscent, fleshy, drupaceous, winged or wing- 
less: seeds naked, or enveloped with hairs: embryo straight, 
surrounded with copious, fleshy albumen. 
GENUS I. POLYGALA. 
Monadelphia Octandria. Ser: Syst: 
Deriv. From polys, much, and gala, milk; the plants are said 
to yield much nourishment to cattle. : 
Gen. Cuan. Herbaceous, or shrubby plants: racemes terminal 
or axillary: sepals 5, persistent : wings large, petal-like: petals 3, 
their claws united with the staminiferous tube, the lower one keel 
shaped: stamens united into a tube at the base: anthers opening 
by a pore: ovary 2-celled: ovules‘solitary: capsule 2-celled, coms 
pressed; seeds pubescent, furnished with a carunculate aril. 
(1) P. retzrntotves. (Willd.) 
Ident. W. & A. prod. I. p. 36.—Dec. prod. I. p. $32+. 
Syn. P. serpyllifolia, Dec. prod. I. p. 326. 
Sprc. Cuar. Stems herbaceous, diffuse, pubescent: leaves aties 
éulent, glabrous, oval-oblong, narrow at the base: racemes 4-« 
flowered, scarcely half as long as the leaves: wings leafy, oval, 
i 
