Blake — Revision of Polygala 3 
yet proposed to split the genus on this feature alone. Of the sec- 
tions recognized by Chodat; here taken as subgenera in view of their 
strong characters and for convenience of subordination of their 
minor divisions, six! occur in the region under consideration. The 
first four — Phlebotaenia, Badiera, Hebecarpa, Hebeclada — are 
chracterized by a crestless, beakless keel; the fifth — Chamaeburus 
—-by a beaked keel; and the sixth — Orthopolygala — by a fim- 
briate-crested keel. Their characters can best be considered sepa- 
rately. 
1. Phlebotaenia. Two species, confined to Cuba and Porto Rico, 
shrubs or even trees up to fifty feet high (according to Wright’s 
label), with large showy purple flowers in axillary racemes and large 
very coriaceous very densely and dichotomously reticulate-veined 
leaves. The sepals are free and caducous, the wings caducous, and 
the keel beakless and crestless; the capsule 1- or 2-seeded, large, 
broadly winged on one side. The type species was originally pub- 
lished as a distinct genus by Grisebach under the above name, but 
its characters, when the whole range of variation in the group is 
taken into consideration, do not support this view, and one of the 
technical characters on which emphasis was laid by Grisebach — 
the introrse pores of the anthers — is by no means a peculiarity of 
this group. Careful dissection of species of Hebecarpa and Hebe- 
clada shows exactly the same introrse-subapical opening that is 
found in Phlebotaenia. In the Genera Plantarum (i. 136) of Bent- 
ham and Hooker, Phlebotaenia is characterized as having “ petala 
lateralia e carina libera et basi dissita, superiora minora minuta 
vel O.”’ In these features, however, Phlebotaenia agrees with other 
Polygalas. The upper petals (‘‘ petala lateralia ”’ of B. & H.) are 
not joined to the keel, it is true, but are firmly adnate to the 
staminal tube; the lateral (‘‘ petala superiora ”’ of B. & H.) are pre- 
sent and larger than in most Polygalas, although still much smaller 
than the upper. The removal of Phlebotaenia from Polygala to 
such a degree in the Genera seems to be based on a misconception. 
2. Badiera. I have recognized eleven species, all West Indian, 
several of which have not been examined. They form a habitally 
very distinct group of shrubs or small trees with oblong to elliptic 
coriaceous slightly veined leaves and very short axillary racemes of 
1 Including Badiera, treated by Chodat as a subsection of his section Hebe- 
carpa. 
