STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
P. Senega is not evergreen in its habits; it flowers in 
May among grasses on dry uplands; it is simple, slender, 
and not ungraceful, the leafy stem terminating in a spike 
of greenish-white flowers. The wiry root is said to possess 
medicinal qualities. The plant which merits our attention 
more particularly for its beautiful flowers is P. paucifolia, 
the beautiful fringed, or crested, Polygala. It is a small- 
sized plant, about six to nine inches in height; the stem is 
simple, rising from a running or creeping root-stock, oftea 
furnished with subterranean imperfect leafiets and fertile 
flowers. The smooth dark-green leaves, delicately fringed 
with soft silky hairs tinged with a purplish hue, are per- 
sistent through the winter. The stem of the plant is leafy, 
the lower leaves small and bract-like, the upper ones larger 
and clustered round the summit; from amongst these 
appear from two to four, and sometimes as many as five, 
elegantly winged purple-lilac flowers. The two upper 
petals are long-ovate, the lower forming a crested keel, 
finely tinged with deeper purple. The fiowers of this 
beautiful species are very graceful, slightly drooping from 
among the shining leaves on thread-like pedicels. The 
stamens are six; sepals of the calyx five; petals three. 
Some old writers have given the name of “ Fly-flower” to 
our pretty Polygala, and truly not an inappropriate name, 
as one might not inaptly liken the opened blossom to some 
gay purple-winged insect ready to take its flight from the 
bosom of the soft silky leaves that form an involucre 
round it. 
This Flowering Wintergreen is one of our earliest Spring 
flowers; in fine warm seasons it appears in the latter end 
of April, continuing to bloom on till the middle of May. 
The early flowering plants are not so tall, neither are the 
flowers so large as those put forth later in the season. On 
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