WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK l6l 



wrticillatc in fours, oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, one-half to i| inches 

 long and about one-eighth of an inch wide, entire, blunt and mucronulate 

 at the apex. Flowers in short-stalked, oval, blunt racemes, about one- 

 third to one-half of an inch thick, purplish green or nearly white; wings 

 triangular-ovate, sessile, somewhat heart-shaped, pointed or awned, one- 

 fourth of an inch long or less, longer than the pods; crest of the corolla 

 minute; seeds oblong and somewhat hairy. 



In low grounds and marshes along the coast and sandy swamps inland, 

 Maine to Florida west to Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Louisiana. 

 Flowering from July to September. 



Field or Purple Milkwort 

 Polygala viridescens Linnaeus 



Plate i2-)a 



Stems leafy, branched above, annual, smooth and somewhat angled, 

 5 to 15 inches high. Leaves all on the stem, oblong to linear-oblong 

 in shape, three-fourths to \\ inches long, one-eighth or one-sixteenth of 

 an inch wide, pointed and mucronulate. Flowers purplish, greenish purple, 

 whitish or greenish in terminal, globose, blunt heads about one-half 

 of an inch thick, becoming oval; wings of the flowers sessile, ovate, often 

 slightly cordate, longer than the pod, bracts usually persistent on the 

 elongating axis as the lower flowers fall away. 



In meadows, fields and sandy depressions, Nova Scotia to Ontario 

 and Minnesota, south to North Carolina, Kansas and Arkansas. Flowering 

 from June to September. 



Seneca Snakeroot; Mountain Flax 



Polygala senega Linnaeus 



Plate 125a 



Stems usually several from a perennial, woody rootstock, ascending 

 or erect, 5 to 18 inches high, usually simple, occasionally branched above, 

 glabrous or nearly so. Leaves alternate, the lowest ones very small, closer 

 together and scalelike, the upper ones oblong-lanceolate or ovate, some- 



