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. POLYGALACEA. PortyGaLta Famity 
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. Frrncep Poty@aua, Basies’ Tors, May 
Wines. 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 cleistoga- 
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 SnAkEROOoT. 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. EUPHORBIACEZ. Spurce Famity 
Herbs, shrubs, or trees, usually with a milky, more or less 
acrid and sometimes poisonous juice. Flowers mostly apetal- 
ous, moneecious or dicecious (Fig. 23). Ovary usually 3-celled, 
with 1 or 2 ovules in each cell; stigmas as many as the cells 
