A NOTE ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF POLYGALA
BY
K. Rangachariar, m.a., and C. Tadulingam, F.L.S.
Agricultural Research Institute, Coimbatore.
During the month of December last year some species of Polygala came up in great profusion and they were unusually dominant on the Estate of the Agricultural College. They consisted of the four species dealt with in this note. Out of these four, only one, Polygala chinensis L. is included in Hooker's Flora of British India, and in Gamble's Madras Flora this species and Polygala bolbothrix Dunn are included. The other two species are merged under Polygala erioptera, DC. Prod. i. 326 and Polygala chinensis Linn., although they differ very much from these species. In Wight and Arnott's Prodromus 1.36, Polygala Vahliana DC. is treated as a distinct species.
Text fig. 1. P.-Vahliana:—A. a branch, 1. flower-bud, 2. an open flower, 3. ovary, 4. corolla, 5. fruit, 6. fruit cut open, 7 seed.
1. Polygala Vahliana DC. Prod. 326:—This is a freely branching herb. Stems and branches are procumbent and pubescent. Leaves are oblong, narrowed downwards into a petiole, obtuse, mucronulate or not, softly hairy on both the surfaces and varying in length from 3/16 to 7/16 inch. Racemes are very short, opposite to the leaves or lateral, 3 to 6 flowered; bracteoles are very small and persistent. The two inner larger sepals are somewhat membranous with a green mid-nerve, elliptic, villous and about as long as the fruit. The petals are pinkish and the keel is cristate. The capsule is very small, oval, emarginate, glabrous on the faces and softly villous at the edges only,
