56 THE VIOLET FAMILY. [Viola. 



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. Curtisii, 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.] 



X. POLYGrALACE-ffl. THE MILKWOET 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. MILKWOET. 



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 with the 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. Leaves crowded 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 lie 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 Eussian 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 



