Mr. Baldwin maintains that there is no wild flower of as pure a pink as this unless it be the Sabbatia. Its color has also been described as a “peach-blossom red.” As already mentioned, the plant is found blossoming in bogs during the early summer in company with the Calopogons and sundews. Its violet-like fragrance greatly enhances its charm.
Common Milkwort.
Polygala sanguinea. Milkwort Family.
Stem.—Six inches to a foot high, sparingly branched above, leafy to the top. Leaves.—Oblong-linear. Flowers.—Growing in round or oblong heads which are somewhat clover-like in appearance, bright pink or almost red, occasionally paler. Calyx.—Of five sepals, three of which are small and often greenish, while the two inner ones are much larger and colored like the petals. Corolla.—Of three petals connected with each other, the lower one keel-shaped. Stamens.—Six or eight. Pistil.—One. (Flowers too difficult to be analyzed by the non-botanist.)
This pretty little plant abounds in moist and also sandy places, growing on mountain heights as well as in the salt meadows which skirt the sea. In late summer its bright flower-heads gleam vividly through the grasses, and from their form and color might almost be mistaken for pink clover. Occasionally they are comparatively pale and inconspicuous.
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Polygala polygama. Milkwort Family.
Stems.—Very leafy, six to nine inches high, with cleistogamous flowers on underground runners. Leaves.—Lance-shaped or oblong. Flowers.—Purple-pink, loosely clustered in a terminal raceme. Keel of Corolla.—Crested. Stamens.—Eight. Pistil.—One.
Like its more attractive sister, the fringed polygala, this little plant hides its most useful, albeit unattractive, blossoms in the ground, where they can fulfil their destiny of perpetuating the species without danger of molestation by thievish insects or any of the distractions incidental to a more worldly career. Exactly what purpose the little above-ground flowers, which appear so plentifully in sandy soil in July, are intended to serve, it is difficult to understand.
Fringed Polygala.
Polygala paucifolia. Milkwort Family.
Flowering stems.—Three or four inches high, from long, prostrate or underground shoots which also bear cleistogamous flowers. Leaves.—The lower, small and scale-like, scattered, the upper, ovate, and crowded at the summit. Flowers.—Purple-pink, rarely white, rather large. Keel of Corolla.—Conspicuously fringed and crested. Stamens.—Six. Pistil.—One.
