50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



leaves, and gradually diminishing in size are found the cylin- 

 drical, oblong flowers, the creamy white perianth having its 

 six lobes beautifully tinted with apple green. Included are 

 six stamens, and with introrse anthers. The superior ovary 

 is three-celled, with several ovules in each cell, and there is a 

 slender, deciduous style. The capitate stigma is obscurely 

 three-lobed. The resultant berry is globular and black or 

 blue in color. The pendulous peduncles bear from two to 

 eight flowers, the pedicels uniting below into a common 

 peduncle. 



This plant is showy enough to be introduced into any 

 garden, and in cultivation increases in size and vigor, soon 

 spreading to an alarming extent. It is hence desirable to 

 give it a bed to itself, or to plant it well back of other things 

 which it will not over-shade. The name Polygonatuui is from 

 the Greek pohis, many and gonu, a knee, "alluding to the num- 

 erous joints of the rootstock and stem." 



Our other species, Polygonaium bifloruni, is very much 

 smaller from one to three feet high, and as its name implies, 

 usually has two flowers to a peduncle, sometimes only one; 

 occasionally as many as three. The flowers are greenish 

 and of no great beauty. While in P. giganteum the filaments 

 are smooth and naked, in this species they are papillose- 

 roughened. The leaves are more decidedly glaucous. Here 

 in Rhode Island, it is our only species and is very common. 

 It has a wide distribution according to Gray's Manual, from 

 New Brunswick to Florida, and west to Minnesota. East 

 Kansas and Texas. 



The False Solomon's Seals belong generally to the 

 genera Sniilacina and Maiaiithcntuiii. and we have even 

 heard Streptopus and Uvidaria so classed. There is, one 

 would think, no likelihood of mistaking any of these for Sol- 

 omon's Seal, yet in Rhode Island, the dainty little Maianthe- 

 mum is almost universally so entitled. It will be recalled that 



