826 DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Spartium. 
OCTANDRIA. 
POLYG'ALA.* Calyx five-leaved, two larger leafits wing-like, 
coloured: Caps . inversely heart-shaped, two-celled: 
Seeds solitary, (crested. E.) 
P.. vulga'ris. Flowers crested, in terminal bunches : stems herbaceous, 
simple, procumbent: leaves strap-spear-shaped. 
Wale.—FL Dan. 516 — Kniph. 11 — E. Bot. 76 — J. B. iii. 386. 3 and 4 — Dad. 
253 — Lob. Obs. 228. 1, and Ic. i. 416. 2 — Ger. Em. 564 — Park. 1332. 2— 
Trng. 571 — Lonic. i. 183. 1 — J. B. iii. 362 — Lob. Ic. i. 417. 1— Ger. Em. 
563. 3—Ger. 449. 4. 
(A pretty little plant, smooth, of a dark shining green. E.) Stem angular, 
undivided, two or three to six or eight inches high, sometimes nearly 
upright. Leaves alternate or in pairs, a little rolled back at the edges, 
the upper spear-shaped, the lower egg-shaped. Blossom-wings spear- 
shaped, more fully coloured than the calyx; standard composed of two 
petals, joined by a hairiness at the edges. Keel cylindrical below, to¬ 
wards the top expanding into two sets of club-shaped glandular appen¬ 
dages. Filaments in two sets, four fingers to each. Anthers yellow, or 
orange. Style thicker upwards. Summit with two lips, the one a fleshy 
knob, the other spear-shaped, concave. Seed-vessel bordered. Blossom 
blue, purple, flesh-coloured, or white. 
Common Milkwort. (Irish: Luss bainne. Welsh: Llys Crist; Amlae - 
thai. E.) Pastures and heaths, common. P. June—July.t 
DECANDRIA. 
SPARTIXJM.J (Filaments all forming a simple tube : Stigma 
lateral, linear, hairy: Legume flat. Sm. E.) 
* (From iro\v;, much, and yaXa, milk ; having a tendency to increase the milk of cattle 
feeding on it: or, according to ancient fable, in the breasts of nurses. E.) 
+ Linnaeus found it to possess the properties of the Senega Rattle-snake root, ( Poly- 
gala Senega ) but in an inferior degree- Duhamel used it in pleuretic cases with success. 
Mem. de Paris, 1740. The powdered root may be given in doses of half a dram. Cows, 
goats, and sheep eat it; swine refuse it. An infusion of the herb, which is very bitter, 
taken in the morning fasting, about a quarter of a pint daily, promotes expectoration, and 
is good for catarrhous coughs. I tried it with success. Dr. Smith. (A decoction has been 
found serviceable in ascites and anasarca; but the medicinal virtues of this plant are as 
yet far from correctly understood, and experiments should be conducted cautiously, as its 
effects in disordering the system are sometimes rather violent. E.) 
f; (The InapTtov of Dioscorides, the Spart of the ancient Greeks, was rather the Esparto 
grass of Spain and Portugal, of which ropes are now made, equivalent to the hemp of 
northern climes; than the modern Spartium, to which the term may be applied for its 
utility in furnishing bands to tie vines; but most of the names of this plant have direct 
reference to its use, as a domestic utensil frequently composed of it. 
The vagrant artist oft at eve reclines, 
And Broom's green shoots in besoms neat combines.” 
And hence it has been inferred that besoms were originally made of Broonij and thus de¬ 
nominated. E.) 
