: ee 
ri a ? 
_Y wud, 
c. V. lutea, Huds. Usually perennial. Foliage of the compact forms 
of the garden Pansy. Flowers large, and richly coloured, often yellow. 
In mountain pastures in Wales, northern England, and western Scotland. 
V. Curtisit, Forst., is an intermediate form between this and the garden 
Pansy. [Var. hamulata, Baker, is a small-flowered form of this from 
Yorkshire, which resembles a perennial arvensis. ] 
56 : THE VIOLET FAMILY. 
X. POLYGALACEZH. THE MILKWORT FAMILY. 
A family represented in Europe only by Polygala itself. 
The other genera associated with it are chiefly tropical or 
natives of the southern hemisphere, differing from Polygala in ~ 
the form and consistence of their fruit, or in minor details in 
the structure of their flowers. 
I. POLYGALA. MILKWORT. 
Herbs or shrubs, with entire leaves, usually alternate, no stipules, 
and very irregular flowers in terminal racemes. Sepals 5, of which the 
2 inner are large, usually petal-like, and commonly called wings. 
Petals 3, 4, or 5, the lowest very small and subulate, and all more or 
less united withthe stamens. Stamens united in 2 parcels, each with 
4 anthers opening by pores at the summit. Style 1, with a single stigma. 
Ovary and capsule flat, 2-celled, with a single pendulous seed in each 
cell. Seeds albuminous and cotyledons thin in the British species ; 
cotyledons fleshy and no albumen in some exotic ones. 
A very numerous genus, widely diffused over most parts of the globe. 
Several were formerly showy South African species cultivated in our 
greenhouses. 
1. P, vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 127). Common Milkwort.—A glabrous or 
nearly glabrous perennial, with a short tufted or almost woody stock, 
and numerous diffuse or ascending branches, from an inch or two to 
near a foot long, occasionally flowering the first year, so as to appear 
annual. Leavescrowded at the base, the lowest obovate or even orbicular, 
especially in young plants, the upper ones oblong-lanceolate, or even 
linear, 2 or 3 lines to near an inch long. Flowers usually bright blue 
or pink, hanging on short pedicels in elegant terminal racemes, with a 
small bract at the base of each pedicel. Three outer sepals small, linear, 
and greenish, the 2 wings twice as large, obovate or oblong, coloured 
and elegantly veined ; after flowering they le flat on the capsule, but 
become greener, Petals much smaller, the 2 lateral oblong-linear, the 
lowest keel-shaped, and tipped with a little crest. Style dilated at the 
top. Capsule green, orbicular, surrounded by a narrow wing, notched 
at the top. Seeds oblong, downy. 
In meadows and pastures, heaths, under hedges, &c,, throughout 
Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Abundant in 
Britain. fl. all summer. It varies much in the relative size of the 
lower and upper leaves, in the size and colour of the flowers, in the 
veins and the breadth of the wings, &c., and many forms which have 
appeared constant in particular localities have at various times been 
