248 



POLYGALA CEJE. 



Abundant in rich lands of valley orchards and vineyards. Mar.- 

 Apr. Glands of the flowers reddish or brownish as in the next. The 

 term Filaree, a contraction of the Spanish Alfilerilla is, like the 

 names Pin Clover or Pin Grass, indifferently applied to either this 

 species or the next. 



4. E. cicutarium (L.) L'Her. Red-stemmed Filaree. Habit 

 of the preceding; leaflets subsessile, nearly oblong, incisely pinnatifld 

 with acute, often toothed lobes; stipules small, acute; flowers and 

 fruit as in the last, but the sepals terminated by 1 or 2 bristle-like 

 hairs and the filaments little dilated at base, not toothed. 



Hillsides or barren or dry soil everywhere. Very common, begin- 

 ning to flower in Feb. or Mar., usually some weeks in advance of the 

 last, and in many places continuing through the summer. It is an 

 esteemed forage plant. Stems commonly reddish, in the last preceding 

 commonly with white stems. 



4. FLCERKEA Willd. 



Low slightly succulent annuals. Leaves alternate, pinnately cleft, 

 exstipulate. Flowers solitary, on axillary peduncles, ours 5-merous, 

 or exceptionally 4-merous. Sepals valvate in the bud, as many 

 hypogynous glands alternating with them. Stamens 10, distinct. 

 Carpels subglobose, nearly distinct, but with a common style which 

 is gynobasic, i. e., arising from among them near the base, and 5-cleft 

 at apex. The fruit consists of roughish carpels separating from the 

 short axis. (Dedicated to Florke, a German botanist.) 



1. F. Douglasii Baill. Meadow Foam. Glabrous, the stems 

 and foliage yellowish green and succulent, branching at the base and 

 very spreading, the branches 6 to 14 in. long; leaves pinnately divided; 

 divisions 8 to mostly 9 and incisely lobed or parted, the lobes linear, 

 acute; peduncles at length 2 to 4 in. long; sepals lanceolate, 3 to 4 

 lines long, J the length of the petals; petals yellowish, white (or 

 occasionally roseate) at tip, obovate-cuneate; nutlets smooth to 

 strongly tuberculate. about 2 lines in diameter. 



Low ground, in or near shallow water, forming large patches which 

 color, in Apr., the valley levels in the Coast Ranges. 



49. POLYGALACE/E. Polygala Family. 



Ours perennial herbs or somewhat suflfruteseent plants with alter- 

 nate simple leaves and no stipules. Flowers in terminal racemes, irreg- 

 ular and resembling the papillionaoeous Hewers of Leguminosse, but ■ 

 not like them in structure. Stamens (in ours) monadelphous. Ovary 

 simple, superior. 



1. POLYGALA L. Milkwort. 

 Stems often with milky juice. Sepals 5, thin, the two lower and the 

 upper keeled one of about the same size, the two lateral much larger, 

 colored, and projecting like the wings of a pea-flower. Petals 3, 

 united at base; middle petal hooded above and often beaked or 



