52 xi. poltgalace.e. \ Polygdta . 
base. — Shrubs or herbs. Leaves without stipules. Flowers 
usually racemose. — Several of this family are used medicinally. 
The leaves are bitter, the roots more or less milky. Polygala 
Senega is the snake-root of N. America. Krar.eria of Peru is 
powerfully astringent, and usually referred here. 
1. Polygala Linn. Milkwort. 
Cal. with 2 sepals, wing-shaped, and coloured. Pet. com- 
bined by their claws with the filaments, the lower one keeled. 
Caps, compressed. Seeds downy, crested at the hilum. — Name, 
t ro\i>, much, and ya\a, milk, from some fancied property in the 
plant. 
1. P. vulgaris L. (common M.); perennial, keel crested, 
flowers in a terminal raceme, wings of the calyx ovate or oblong, 
their nerves branched the lateral ones anastomosing with a 
branch of the central nerve, capsule glabrous sessile obcordate, 
seed with the lobes of the arillodium unequal, stems herbaceous 
often branched at the base, branches simple procumbent or 
ascending, leaves on the branches linear or oblong. — a. leaves 
scattered, lower ones smaller oblong, wings of the calyx obo- 
vate mueronate. E. B. t. 76. P. oxyptera Reich.: E. B. S. 
t. 2827. P. depressa Wendl. — (3. lower leaves chiefly in an 
irregular tuft obovate obtuse, wings of the calyx oblong. P. 
calcarea Schdtz. P. amara Don in E. B. S. t. 2764. 
Dry hilly pastures, frequent. U. 5 — 9. — Stems often very short, 
with crowded alternate or opposite, obovate or oblong, obtuse leaves, 
branched or simple : branches 4 — 8 inches long, being a mere con- 
tinuation of the stem when this is simple, often springing from the 
root. Cor. beautifully crested, blue, purple, pink, or white. Sepals 
persistent, the two larger ones enclosing the fruit and usually twice 
as long, 3-nerved, the veins arising from the two lateral nerves either 
anastomising with each other or with the upper vein of the central 
nerve. 
2. P. austriuca Crantz (Austrian M.); perennial, keel crested, 
flowers in a terminal raceme, “ wings of the calyx oblong or 
obovate obtuse, their nerves simple or slightly branched free, 
capsule wedge-shaped below roundish broader than the wings, 
seed with the lobes of the arillodium nearly equal,” stems 
herbaceous, “ leaves in a rosette obovate obtuse.” — a. leaves of 
the rosette larger than those of the branching flower-shoot, 
flowers smaller, capsule rounded below. — ;3. leaves of the rosette 
larger than those of the nearly constantly simple flower-shoot, 
flowers larger, capsule wedge-shaped. P. uliginosa Reich. P. 
myrtilolia Fries. 
0. Back of Cronkley Fell, Yorkshire ; Messrs. Backhouse. 1/..6, 7. 
— The few specimens we have seen of the var. 0. (the only one yet dis- 
covered in Britain) do not enable us to form a satisfactory character : 
