Tas. 6133. 
POLYGONATUM VULGARE var. MACRANTHUM. 
Native of Japan. . 
Ld 
Nat. Ord. Sminacem—Tribe CONVALLARIEZ. on 
Genus Poryconatum, Tournef. ; (Endl. Gen. Pl., p. 154). 
PoLyGonatum vulgare ; caule arcuato acuto angulato, foliis alternis breviter 
petiolatis late ellipticis obtusis v. obtuse acuminatis subtus glaucescentibus 
6-nerviis, floribus 1—4, perianthii supra medium subinflati lobis brevi- 
bus late orbiculato-ovatis viridibus apice obtuse apiculatis et incrassatis, 
filamentis glabris. 
Potygonatum vulgare, Desf. ; A. Gray Bot. Jap.; p. 4138. 
P. officinale, All. ; Maxim. Prim. Fl. Amur., 274; Miquel Prol. Fl. Jap., 148. 
Conva.Laria Polygonatum, Linn. ; Thunb. Fl. Jap., p. 148. 
Var. macranthum, floribus 1} pollicaribus. 
I have retained this plant as a variety of P. vulgare with 
much hesitation, doubting its proving even as a variety dis- 
tinct from some already described forms of that variable plant. 
Tt is certainly not the same as Morren and Decaisne’s 
P. japonicum, which they describe as having short solitary 
flowers with a campanulate perianth, and which is undoubtedly 
another form of P. vulgatum, a plant that extends from 
Western Europe (Norway and Spain) to the Western Hima- 
laya, North East Asia and Japan, and which I suspect exists 
in Eastern N. America under one or more forms. 
The size of the flower is perhaps the most noticeable feature 
of the plant here figured, though in that it is rivalled by both 
European and North Asiatic specimens ; the inflation of the 
corolla above its middle and its slight contraction at the 
throat are other characters, which however disappear as the 
corolla withers and its lobes connive. Decaisne and Morren 
observe that the style exceeds the stamens in their P. japonicum, 
which is no doubt a sexual difference. In the form of its 
foliage it agrees best with the N. America P. commutatum, 
Dietr. and Otto, which has a terete stem. Lastly, having 
NOVEMBER Isr, 1874. 
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