122 POLYGALACE^. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 



nearly as long as the seed. — Margin of swamps, Maine to Virginia and south- 

 ward near the coast, and along the Great Lakes. 



9. P. brevifolia, Nutt. Eather slender, branched above ; leaves scattered 

 on the branches, narrower; spikes piduncled; wings lanceolate-ocate, pointless or 

 lardy mucronate. — Margin of sandy bogs, Rhode Island ( Olney), New Jersey, and 

 southward. Too near the last. 



* * Spikes slender {alout 2" thick), the bracts falling with the flowers, which are 

 small, greenish-white or barely tinged with purple, the crest of the keel larger. 



10. P. vertieillata, L. Slender (6' -10' high), much branched; stem- 

 leaves all whorl ed, those of the branches scattered, linear, acute ; spikes peduncled, 

 dense, acute; wings round, clawed; the 2-lobed caruncle half the length of the 

 seed. — Dry soil : common. 



11. P. ambigua, Nutt. Very slender, loosely branched ; lowest stem-leaves 

 in fours, the red scattered; spikes long-peduncled, more slender, the flowers often 

 purplish and scattered; wings oval; caruncle shorter; otherwise nearly as in 

 No. 10, — of which it is probably a mere variety. — Dry soil, from New York 

 and Pennsylvania southward. 



§ 4. Perennial, with alternate leaves throughout, and white flowers in a solitary close 

 spike : no subterranean blossoms. 



12. P. Senega, L. (Seneca Snakeroot. ) Stems several from thick 

 and hard knotty rootstocks, simple (6' -12' high) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, with rough margins ; flowers almost sessile ; wings round-obovate, 

 concave ; crest short ; caruncle nearly as long as the seed. — Rocky soil, W. 

 New England to Wisconsin and southward. May, June. 



Var. latifdlia, Torr. & Gray. Taller, sometimes branched ; leaves ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, 2' -4' long, tapering to each end. — Maryland to Kentucky. 



§ 5. Biennials and perennials, with showy, rose-purple, conspicuously crested flowers ; 

 also bearing colorless and inconspicuous more fertile ones, with imperfect corollas, 

 fertilized in the bud, on subterranean branches. 



13. P. pol^gama, Walt. Stems numerous from the biennial root, mostly 

 simple, ascending, very leafy (6' to 9' high) ; leaves oblanceolate or oblong, alternate ; 

 terminal raceme many-flowered, the broadly obovate wings- longer than the keel ; 

 stamens 8 ; radical floAvers racemed on short runners beneath the ground ; lobes 

 of the caruncle 2, scale-like, shorter than the seed. — Dry sandy soil; common 

 eastward. July. 



14. P. paucifdlia, Willd. Perennial ; flowering stems short (3' - 4' high), 

 rising from long and slender prostrate or subterranean shoots, which also bear 

 concealed fertile flowers ; lower leaves small and scale-like, scattered : the upper 

 leaves ovate, pttioled, crowded at the summit of the stem; flowers 1 -3, large, pe- 

 duncled ; wings obovate, rather shorter than the conspicuously fringe-crested 

 keel ; stamens 6 ; caruncle of 2 or 3 awl-shaped lobes longer than the seed.— 

 Woods, in light soil, especially northward, extending southward along the Al- 

 leghanies. May. — A delicate plant, with large and very handsome flowers, 9" 

 long, rose-purple, or rarely pure white. Sometimes called Flowering Winter- 

 jreen, but more appropriately Fringed Polygala. 



