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Polygaleae (Natural order of herbs)

A natural order of herbs or under-shrubs, occasionally twining, or erect or climbing shrubs, rarely small trees, glabrous, tomentose or villous, dispersed over the temperate and warmer regions of the globe. Flowers hermaphrodite, irregular, solitary or centripetally spicate or racemose, rarely paniculate, axillary or terminal; sepals five, free, closely imbricated, the two inner ones larger, petaloid, wing-formed; petals three or five, hypogynous, the two lateral free or united at their base with the lower concave or galeate (keel), in the gamopetalous corolla split behind, rarely absent; upper two sometimes equal to the lateral, enveloping the keel in aestivation, sometimes small, scale-like, or absent; stamens eight, rarely five or four, above the middle monadelphous or rarely free, the outer ones often more or less connate with the petals; pedicels usually articulate at base, bracteate and bracteolate. Fruit a capsule, berry, or drupe. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, simple, entire; stipules none. The species contain tonic and astringent properties. Several of the European Polygalas find a place in our Materia Medica as remedies for lung diseases; the root of P. Senega has a stimulating action on the pulmonary mucous membrane. The order includes fifteen genera and about 400 species. Illustrative genera are: Monnina, Muraltia, and Polygala.