A review of the Herbaceous species of Polygala in Malesia (Polygalaceae)

The subdivision of the genus as proposed by Chodat in his Monograph of the family, seventy five years ago, needs emendation. First, one of his sections, Semeiocardium (Zoll.) Hassk. must be completely reconstructed. It is typified by a singular genus Semeiocardium occurring in Madura and Kangean Is. (off NE. Java) which was described by Zollinger as a Balsaminacea, but included by Hasskarl in the Polygalaceae, in which he was followed by Chodat. Backer has indubitably shown that Zollinger’s opinion was correct and that it represents a remarkable, endemic genus of the Balsaminaceae (Gard. Bull. Str. Settl. 9, 1935, 70). For the other species included in this section a new section must be accepted which I have named Pseudosemeiocardium. Furthermore, through the type method, the sectional name Orthopolygala Chodat must be substituted by Polygala to which belongs the lectotype species of the genus, P. vulgaris L. (cf. Linné, Sp. Pl. repr. 1959, vol. 2, Steam’s index notes, p. [137]). Finally, Chodat’s first key character to the sectional subdivision, namely whether the keel is cristate or not, does not hold, because the species of sect. Pseudosemeiocardium defined as ecristate in that key, and which certainly represent a natural taxon, almost all possess a cristate keel, viz. P. malesiana, P. cardiocarpa, P. furcata; only one has an ecristate keel viz. P. tatarinowii. Provisionally, it seems to me more practical to use as first key character whether the two paired (inner) sepals are caducous or persistent. This can always be observed as in the herbarium in almost all specimens the lower flowers of at least some racemes are beyond anthesis.