THE MILKWORT— continued. 
or yellow flowers tipped with purple ; and several South African species, with pretty 
rose-coloured blossoms recalling those of the Rest-harrow, are familiar in our 
greenhouses. One of the most striking characters, however, of our British species 
is the occurrence — frequently side by side and thus under apparently identical 
conditions — of varieties differing in nothing save the colour of their flowers — which 
may be pink, deep rose-colour, light blue, dark blue, white or striped with blue and 
white — and, to a very slight extent, in their date of flowering. 
A careful tabulation of the date of flowering of British plants has shown that 
the blue ones on the average flower considerably the earliest, then, in order, the 
whites, purples, and lastly the yellows and reds ; and a similar order prevails among 
the varieties of the Milkworts. The Common Milkwort {Poly gala vulgaris Linne) 
flowers on an average about the 8th of May, the earliest date recorded in the south 
of England being April 24th and the latest for its first appearance in the year being 
June 13th. The less common Chalk Milkwort (P. calcar ea F. Schultz) flowers on 
an average on May 2nd, or between April 19th and May 1 8th ; but in each case the 
blue variety blossoms a day or two before the white, and the white a day or two 
before the red-flowered form. 
The occurrence of these sharply contrasting colours side by side is suggested 
as the probable origin of the name Four Sisters which is used for the Milkwort in 
County Waterford ; while the general season of its blossoming is the main reason 
for a series of names that we owe in the first case to the happy instinct of Gerard. 
“ Milkewoort,” he says, “is called by Dodon&us, j]os Ambarualis : so called because it doth especially flourishe in the 
Crosse or Gangweeke, or Rogation weeke ; of which floures, the maidens which use in the countiies to walke the procession, 
doe make themselves garlands, and nosegaies : in English we may call it Crosse floure, Procession floure, Gang floure, 
Rogation floure, and Milkewoort.” 
The German Kreuzbliime, the Dutch Kruisbloem, and the Danish Kaarsblomster 
may all be derived from this English proposal ; but the Swedish Jungfru maricelin 
must have an independent origin. Though several species of Polygala have medicinal 
properties, there seems no warranty for the generic name, which is derived from the 
Greek 7roA.us, polus, much, yaXa, gala , milk, and occurs in Dioscorides ; but it is, 
of course, the origin alike of our own Milkwort, the German MilchblUme , the French 
Laitier, and the Spanish Lechera. 
