roI.YOAI.l'/E. 
47 
I. Polygala. Milkwort. 
Calycine sepals 5, persistent ; the two inner wing- 
shaped. Petals 3-5, connected with the tube of the 
stamens ; the lowest one keel-shaped. Capsule com- 
pressed, elliptic, obovate or obcordate. Seeds pubes- 
cent : hilum carunculated, destitute of a tuft De 
Cand. abbr. 
Name, from no\o much, and yoXa milk ; from the ancients, 
according to Dioscorides, having an idea, that the common 
milkwort had the property of exciting the secretion of milk. 
P Polygala paniculata. Panicled Milkwort. 
Racemes subspiked rather lax elongated peduncled, 
wings ovali-oblong scarcely longer than the capsule, 
leaves sparse linear acute, stem erect very much 
branched. 
Swartz, Obs. 272. t. 6. f. 2. — Browne, 287. 
HAB. Common in mountain pastures. 
FL. The cooler months of the year. 
Herbaceous, erect, 8—12 inches in height, terete, to the 
glass puberulous with most minute capitate hairs : branches 
numerous, subdivided, leafy. Leaves scattered, subpetiolate, 
an inch in length, lineari-lanceolate, acute, subentire, glabrous, 
to the glass punctulated. Racemes subterminal, erect, many 
flowered, 3-4 inches long : peduncle angulose, to the glass 
puberulous with capitate hairs. Flowers purple, on short te- 
rete purplish pedicels, nodding. Sepals 5 ; the 3 outer ones 
small, greenish with a purple tinge: the 2 inner oblong, white. 
Petals 3 ; the inferior petal greenish, clawed, truncated and 
multifido-cristate, with 10 long subulate spreading, at first pur- 
ple, afterwards white teeth, at the apex. Stamens 8 : filaments 
short, monadelplious at the base, accrete to the wings : anthers 
small, globose, yellow. Ovary compressed, obcordate ; style 
erect, thickened and incurved towards the stigma, which is 2- 
lipped. Capsule oblong, emarginate at both ends, compressed, 
2-celled, opening at the sides, 2-seeded : seeds oblong, brown, 
hairy, to the glass echinated. 
An interesting and beautiful inhabitant of our mountain pas- 
tures. Its properties are said to be sudorific and diuretic, and 
it may be administered in decoction or infusion. 
2. Polygala mucronata, Yellow -flowered Milk-wort. 
Flowers beardless, racemes terminal, leaves lanceo- 
