2764
POLYGALA amara.
Bitter Milkworts
D IAD E L PH IA Octandna.
Gen. Char. T wo segments of the Calyx like wings.
Petals 3 or 5, connected together ; lower one
keel-shaped. Stigma bilabiate. Capsule compressed,
of 2 cells and 2 valves. Seeds solitary,
crested.
Spec. Char. Stems many, simple, ascending. Leaves
obtuse ; lower ones larger, obovate ; upper ones
strap-shaped. Flowers crested, racemose. Wings
of the calyx as long as the petal. Capsule nearly
orbicular, sessile.
Syn. Poly gala amara. Linn. Syst. ed. 10. 1154.
Sp. PI. 987. Jacq. Vind. 262. Austr.v. 5. t. 412.
FI. Dan. t. 1169. (bona.) Pers. Syn. v. 2. 271.
P. amarella. Crantz, Stirp. Austr. fasc. 5. 438.
P. vulgaris, foliis circa radicem rotundioribus, flore
coeruleo, sapore admodum amaro. Bauh.Pin.
2i5.
P. buxi minoris folio. Vaill. Paris. 161. t. 32.
ƒ. 2. (optima.)
F o u n d growing abundantly at Cuckstone, Cobham,
and other parts of Kent, in the summer of 1831, and recognised
by me at the time, as P • amara. I t has also
been observed in Surrey and Wiltshire. In this country
the plant appears to be peculiar to the chalk, and is perhaps
not uncommon, being liable to be overlooked for
P . vulgaris, of which, in the first edition of the Species
Plantarum, it was ranked as a mere variety, and from
which it is chiefly distinguished by the size and form of its
lower leaves, which, as well as those of the barren shoots,
are broadly obovate, blunt, sometimes spathulate and