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A genus of bitter herbs or shrubs having eight stamens and a two-celled ovary (as the Seneca snakeroot, the flowering wintergreen, etc.); milkwort.

Of or pertaining to a natural order of plants (Polygalaceæ) of which Polygala is the type.

The common English milkwort (Polygala vulgaris), so called from blossoming in gang week. Dr. Prior.

A genus of plants (Polygala) of many species. The common European P. vulgaris was supposed to have the power of producing a flow of milk in nurses.

Of, pertaining to, or obtained from, Polygala; specifically, designating an acrid glucoside (called polygalic acid, senegin, etc.), resembling, or possibly identical with, saponin.

nies of special supplication. -- Rogation flower (Bot.), a European species of milkwort (Polygala vulgaris); -- so called from its former use for garlands in Rogation week. Dr. Prior. -- Rogation week, the second week before Whitsunday, in which the Rogation days occur.

neca root, or Seneca snakeroot (Bot.), the rootstock of an American species of milkworth (Polygala Senega) having an aromatic but bitter taste. It is often used medicinally as an expectorant and diuretic, and, in large doses, as an emetic and cathartic. [Written also Senega root, and Seneka root.]

A substance extracted from the rootstock of the Polygala Senega (Seneca root), and probably identical with polygalic acid.