286 



years, and the latter is itself seventeen years older than Sniila- 

 chia. There have been very few botanists of any note, since 

 Linnaeus, who were able to accept the Linn^ean doctrine that 

 Polygonatuin and Convallaria, together with the plants now 

 under consideration, are all of one genus ; but the efforts of a 

 number of authors to distinguish and separate them have resulted 

 in a superfluity of generic names; for Moench seems to have 

 ignored the work of Adanson, Desfontaines that of Moench and 

 of Necker, while still later Rafinesque, with his pretty name, 

 Sigillaria, would have superseded the other three. As for pre- 

 Linnaean authorities, Tournefort and Boerhaave, while distinguish- 

 ing our plants from Folygonatiim, confound them with Smtlax, 

 whence Desfontaines took his suggestion of the name Smilactna; 

 and the Linnaean view, that they are all phases of Convallaria, is 

 one which Linn3eus adopted from another set of earlier writers. 



If our genus be limited to those species which have hexamer- 

 ous flowers, and that is Adanson's position, Vagnera is clearly 

 the name it will have to take. If, on the other hand, the two or 

 three tetramerous species are to be included, Vagnera must yield 

 to a still more ancient name, one which, although in use in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is, by virtue of Adanson's 

 adoption of it, rendered valid as a post-Linnsean name; that is 

 Uiiifolmm^ and its priority over Vagnera is of place, not of time. 

 The following, then, appear to be the generic names and their 

 dates; and the choice, it will be seen, hes between the two given 

 by Adanson, if we admit but one genus; both of them being 

 available, and obligatory on us if two genera be allowed. 



Unifolium (Brunfels, 1530; Bock, 1552; Dodoens, 1583; 

 Dlllen, 1719; Haller, 1742), Adanson, Fam. ii. 54. 1763- 

 Maianthenmni, Weber, Prim. Fl. Holsat. 1 780 : Evallaria, 

 Necker, Elem. iii. 147, 1790: species of Convallaria, Linn., 

 Crantz, Miller, et aL, of Smilax, Tourn., Bocrh., et aL 



Vagnera, Adanson, Fam. ii, 496, 1763: Tovaria, Necker, 

 Elem. iii. 190, 1790; Polygonastriim, Moench, Meth. 617, 1794- 

 Smilacina, Desf. Ann, Mus. Par., 1807: species of Convallaria, 

 Linn., Crantz, et aL, of Smilax^ Tourn,, et aL 



My view, which is that of the many botanists who have con- 

 sidered that the tetramerous species here sustain the same relation 



