184 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Polygalea. 
loculicidal dehiscence, rarely samarous or drupaceous. Seed pendulous, with fleshy 
albumen, rarely almost exalbuminous. Embryo axil, straight or lightly curved. 
Cotyledons plane-convex. Eadiele short, superior. 
Herbs, half-shrubs or shrubs, usually of bitter taste, distributed over the tropical 
and temperate zones, in Australia less frequent north than south of the circle of 
Capricorn. Leaves simple, alternate, very seldom opposite, undivided, without sti¬ 
pules. Pedicels tribracteolate. 'Elowers often spicate or racemose. Prevailing color 
of petals red or blue.— 11. JSr. in Append, to minders' Voyage, 343; Aug. de St. Hilaire 
and Moq. Tandon, in Mem. duMus. xvii. 313 ; Hindi. Gen. 1077 ; Hindi. Veg. Kingd. 
ed. iii. 375. 
The alliance of Poly gale se tends as well to Tremandreae as to Sapindacese. Aus¬ 
tralia, as far as known, possesses only the genera Polygala, Comesperma and Sala- 
monea. 
POLYGALA. 
IAnne 7 Gen. Plant. 851. • 
Sepals 5, often persistent; the outer three small; the two inner sepals large , petaloid, Petals 
3 rarely 5, connate with the staminal tube ; the anterior one large, concave, galeate, three-lobed or 
one-lobed and cristate ; lateral.petals very minute, often wanting ; posterior two connivent. Stamens 
8, almost equal, ascendent. Tube of the filaments slit in front; their summit free. Anthers basifixed, 
one-celled, opening by a terminal aperture. Hypogynous disk unilateral or wanting. Ovary two- 
celled, compressed. Ovaries solitary, pendent from below the apex of the narrow dissepiment. Style 
curved, undivided or short and unequally lobed, stigmatose at or below the summit. Capsule com¬ 
pressed, two-celled, opening with marginal dehiscence, rounded at the base. Seeds at the hihm 
stropliiolate. 
Herbaceous, suffruticose or frutescent plants, widely distributed over the temperate and tropical 
zones, but not numerous in Australia, and restricted then to the northern and eastern tracts. Leaves 
alternate, rarely opposite or verticillate, entire. Flowers racemose, spicate, corymbose or capitate, 
rarely solitary 7 . Genitalia concealed within the anterior keel-like petal. Capsule generally membranous 
and at the summit emarginate. Seeds frequently pubescent.— St. Hilaire & Moquin, in Mem. du 
Mus. xvii. t, 27 & 28; Endl. Gen. 1078. 
Poly gala veronicea, F. M. in Transact. Vic. Inst. i. 117. 
Perennial, herbaceous; stems erect or diffused, dwarf, nearly terete, as well as peduncles and pedicels 
short downy; leaves cliartaceous, alternate, on very 7 short petioles, early smooth, flat or at the margin 
slightly recurved, net-veined , the lower ones ovate or some roundish , the upper ones lanceolate or ovate- 
lanceolate, acute; flowers small, collected in a subsessile corymb or raceme, rarely geminate or solitary, 
longer than the pedicels; middle bracteole ovate-lanceolate, longer than the minute semilanceolate lateral 
bracteoles, much shorter than the pedicel; calyx persistent; exterior sepals cymbiform-lanceolate, free; 
interior sepals Jar the largest , oh ovate, nearly as long as the jimbriate-crested anterior petal and the 
orbicular-ohcordate winged capsule; styde with a stipitate terminal and a sessile lateral gland; stropliiole 
downy 7 , half as long as the broad-obovate seed. 
In grassy or gravelly 7 places scattered along the banks of the Goulburn, the Ovens River and their 
lower tributaries; thence extending through East Australia at least as far as the 26 southern parallel. 
