54 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



which are finely pubescent, especially beneath, and sometimes also above, 

 their margins minutely ciliate. Rootstock rather thick and fleshy with 

 numerous long, fibrous roots, the scars of former stems irregular and ring- 

 like. Flowers white; many, forming a large terminal panicle, i to 4 inches 

 long; each flower about 2 lines broad; perianth of six oblong, equal, separate, 

 spreading segments. Fruit a red, aromatic berry about 3 lines in diameter 

 and speckled with purple. In Bergen swamp occurs a variety with three 

 to six purple stripes like the fruit of V. s t e 1 1 a t a. 



In moist woods and thickets. Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south 

 to Georgia, IMissouri and Arizona. 



The Star-flowered Solomon's-seal (Vagnera steUata (Linnaeus) 

 Morong) is scarcely less abundant, but seems to prefer thickets and banks 

 with more moisture. The leaves are smaller and narrower, the flowers 

 fewer in number, larger, white, and racemed; the berries green with six 

 black stripes, or entirely black. 



Three-leaved Solomon's-seal 



Vagnera trifolia (Linnaeus) Morong 



Plate 32a 



Stem and leaves glabrous from a slender, elongated rootstock, the erect 

 stem 2 to 15 inches high with two to four (usually three) oval, oblong or 

 oblong-lanceolate, sessile leaves 2 to 5 inches long, one-half to 2 inches 

 wide with sheathing bases. Flowers white, few, racemed at the top of the 

 stem; perianth segments oblong or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, flnally some- 

 what reflexed and longer than the stamens. Fruit a dark-red berry about 

 one-fourth of an inch in diameter. 



In bogs and wet woods, Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to 

 Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Usually abundant 

 in sphagnum under or near spruces and tamaracks, and therefore rare out- 

 side the mountainous sections of the State except on the margins of bogs 

 and mossy swamps where the spruce and tamarack abound, as, for instance, 

 Cicero swamp in Onondaga county, and Bergen swamp in Genesee county, as 

 well as numerous other swamps of similar character throughout the State. 



