regard to the variability of the alternate-leaved Polygonatums, 
it would not surprise me to find that all were referable to 
two, the P. vulgare with a grooved stem, and P. multiflorum 
with terete stem. 
The subject of the present plate has long been cultivated 
at Kew under the name of P. japonicum, and it flowers in 
April. 
Duscr. Rhizomes stout, creeping. Stems one to one and 
a half feet high; stout, flexuous, green, angled and chan- 
nelled. Leaves two to three inches long, alternate, subsessile, 
broadly elliptic, obtuse or obtusely acuminate, light green 
above, glaucous beneath, 7-nerved, quite glabrous. Flowers 
one to four; peduncles and pedicels longer or shorter than 
the perianth, very slender. Perianth one and a quarter 
inches long, terete, tubular, white, inflated slightly beyond 
the middle, contracted obscurely at the throat; lobes almost 
orbicular, with obtuse callous points, spreading, green. 
Filaments almost as long as the linear anthers, glabrous. 
Ovary globose ; style filiform.—J. D. H. 
Fig, 1, Flower laid open :—somewhat magnified. 
