MILKWORT, in botany, the common name for plants of the genus Polygala (family Polygalaceae), a large genus of some Soo species, widely dispersed in temperate and tropical regions and represented by about 5o species in North America and a few species in Great Britain. The common species, P. vulgaris, is a small wiry perennial found on heaths and in meadows through out the British Isles. The stems are 2 to 10 in. long and bear narrow rather tough leaves and small, 6 to 3 in. long, white, pink, blue, lilac or purple flowers. The flowers are peculiar in form and arrangement of parts; they have five free sepals the two inner of which (b) are large petaloid and winglike, forming the most con spicuous part of the flower; the petals are united below with the sheath of the eight stamens forming a tube split at the base behind; their form recalls that of the pea family. The name Poly
gala is from the Greek roXbs, much, and 76.Xa, milk, the plant being supposed to increase the yield of milk in cows. Some species with showy flowers are known in cultivation as green house or hardy annual or peren nial, herbs or shrubs. The root of P. Senega, snake-root, a North American species is officinal. The fringed milk wort or flowering wintergreen (P. paucifolia), of the north-eastern United States and adjacent Canada, is a deli cate woodland plant with handsome purple flowers. Sea milkwort is the common name for Glaux maritime, a small succulent herb found on northern ocean shores, and occurring on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and locally in the interior of North America and also in the British Isles; it belongs to the primrose family (Pri mulaceae).