THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
NOVEMBER,  1892. 
NOV    8  ]cP-91 
POLYG ALA  ALBA,  NUTTALL. 
By  L.  E.  Sayre,  University  of  Kansas. 
Some  months  ago  through  this  journal  I  communicated  a  paper 
on  Senega  root.  During  subsequent  months  I  noticed  quite  an 
extended  discussion  upon  the  subject  of  the  market  supply  of  this 
drug.  I  believe  it  is  the  opinion  of  many  that  a  species  of  Polygala, 
yielding  a  very  much  smaller  percentage  of  the  acrid  principle  of 
the  drug — P.  alba — does  not  enter  the  market,  and  that  this  species 
is  not  found  to  any  extent  in  the  United  States. 
At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Kansas  Academy  of  Science,  where 
there  were  present  several  prominent  botanists  and  botanical  col- 
lectors of  the  state,  I  took  occasion  to  inquire  whether  the  Polygala 
alba  was  found  growing  to  any  extent  in  Kansas.  The  reply  was 
decidedly  in  the  affirmative.  Prof.  A.  S.  Hitchcock,  successor  to 
Prof.  W.  A.  Kellerman,  having  the  chair  of  botany  at  the  Agricul- 
tural College,  Manhattan,  said  it  was  quite  common  in  the  western 
part  of  the  state.  Mr.  Bernard  B.  Smyth,  Topeka,  who  has  recently 
issued  a  Check  List  of  the  Plants  of  Kansas,  said  it  was  very  abun- 
dant in  Ellis,  McPherson  and  Phillips  counties.  Prof.  W.  A.  Harsh 
berger,  of  Washburn  College,  said  it  was  found  more  or  less 
abundant  west  of  about  the  Sixth  tier  of  counties  in  the  state.  In 
the  recent  check  list  of  Kansas  plants,  by  B.  B.  Smyth,  I  find  the 
following  species  enumerated:  P.  alba,  Nutt.;  P.  incarnata,  L. ; 
P.  polygama,  Walt.;  P.  sanguinea,  L.;  P.  Senega,  L.,  and  P.  verticil- 
lata,  L. 
The  Senega  root,  of  which  I  wrote  in  my  last  communication,  I 
have  been  unable  to  grow  as  I  had  hoped  to  do.    But  since  Prof. 
1553) 
