60 Polygala pancifolia. 



it, are tortuous or drooping. They appear to he incipient stems of 

 another plant, heing furnished with a few very small lanceolate leaves, 

 and terminated by membranaceous, abortive, minute foliage. Leaves 

 alternate, near each other, crowning the top of the stem, mostly live in 

 number, often three, ovate, acute, attenuated at base, glabrous, entire; 

 costa conspicuous, but collateral nerves indistinct in many specimens, 

 very delicately ciliated on the margin; cilia; white. Flowers large, 

 situated on peduncles a quarter of an inch in length, two or three in 

 number, generally three, peach-blossom-red; carina short ; wings 

 large, ovate, acute ; penifonn appendage large. Grows « in sphagnous 

 swamps and bogs, principally on the mountains." Pursh. '-From Penn- 

 sylvania to the mountains of Carolina, forming almost exclusive car- 

 pets of great extent in the Pine forests of Lake Huron." Xuttall. 

 Flowers from May till August. 



This beautiful little plant has the largest flowers of any species of 

 the extensive genus Polygala. They arc prettily situated in the midst 

 of the small, delicate leaves of the plant, to which they form a vivid 

 contrast. The root possesses something of the pungent taste of the 

 Polygala senega, and affects the fauces somewhat in the same man- 

 ner. Of its medicinal virtues nothing is known, though it is probable 

 it is not destitute of power. 



Fig. 4. represents the whole plant, in flower, of its natural size. 

 Many specimens are smaller than the figure represents. 



