WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 55 



False or Wild Lily of the Valley 

 Two-leaved Solomon's-seal 



Unifolium canadense (Desfontaines) Greene 



Plate 19 



A low, herbaceous perennial with slender rootstock, and slender, 

 erect and often zigzag stem, 2 to 7 inches high, bearing one to three (usually 

 two) ovate or ovate-lanceolate, pointed leaves, cordate at the base and 

 sessile or short-petioled ; stemless plants frequent and consisting of a 

 single leaf on a petiole i to 4 inches long arising from the rootstock. Flowers 

 white, numerous, forming a rather dense terminal raceme, i to 2 inches 

 long; perianth about one-fifth of an inch broad with four spreading, 

 separate segments, which slightly exceed the four stamens in length ; fruit 

 a cluster of pale-red, speckled berries, each with one or two seeds. 



In moist woods and thickets, Newfoundland to the Northwest Territory 

 of Canada, south to the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, Iowa 

 and South Dakota. Flowering in May and June. 



A common wild flower of most parts of New York, especially in the 

 moist cool forests of the northern and mountainous sections. 



Sessile-leaved Bellwort 



Uvularia sessilifolia Linnaeus 



Plate 20a 



Stems slender, glabrous, 4 to 12 inches high, naked or with one or 

 two leaves below the fork. Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, i to 3 

 inches long when they mature, thin, sessile, acute at each end, slightly 

 rough -margined, pale or glaucous beneath; flowers greenish yellow, two- 

 thirds to 1 1 inches long; the six perianth segments smooth, the stamens 

 shorter than the styles; anthers blunt; fruit a sharply three-angled capsule, 

 narrowed at both ends, about i inch long and two-thirds as thick. 



In moist woods and thickets, usually most abundant where the soil 

 is sandy, New Brunswick and Ontario to Minnesota, south to Georgia 



