MILKWORT FAMILY 
POLYGALACE/E 
This is a comparatively small family repre- 
sented in the eastern United States by the single 
genus Polygala, which includes a number of more 
or less abundant wild flowers. Many of these 
rather closely resemble one another and are some- 
what difficult to determine with certainty, but a 
very few of them are distinctive and widely dis- 
tributed. 
FRINGED PotyGALa. The most important of 
these is the beautiful little Fringed Polygala, 
which is widely distributed in Canada and the 
northern states. John Burroughs has aptly said 
that a bed of these flowers looks like a flock of 
rose-colored butterflies resting after flight. But 
they are not even what the naturalists call “ butter- 
fly blossoms,” for their structure adapts them to 
the bees, so they are among the “ bee blossoms.” 
Bumble-bees seem to be the most frequent visitors. 
They alight upon the mass of fringe at the end of 
the flower and insert their tongues in between the 
petals to sip the nectar. In doing this they depress 
the keel of the flower, uncovering the anthers and 
the stigma and bringing about cross-pollination 
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