118 GATES: REVISION OF GENUS POLYGONATUM 
means clear at the present time. The only form which appears 
to be a possible mutation is P. giganteum. The interpretation of 
the origin and relationships of the other species and varieties 
will have to await a more detailed knowledge of their characters, 
variation and distribution. 
The Euro-Asian members of the genus Polygonatum, however, 
furnish a series of species, such as P. verticillatum All. and P. 
Haussknechtit Bornm. & Sint., which agree in having their leaves - 
in whorls, rather than alternate as in American species or opposite 
as in some European species. This verticillate condition probably 
did not come about gradually, and must have appeared as a 
mutation by a single step. Whether this mutation occurred but 
once, all verticillate species having then descended from a common 
stock, cannot be debated at the present time, but this is by no 
means necessarily the case. The fact of parallel mutations of 
course complicates all interpretations of phylogenetic possibilities. 
Unless otherwise stated the specimens cited below are in the 
herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden. The abbreviation 
“Cal.” signifies the herbarium of the University of California. 
I. POLYGONATUM PUBESCENS (Willd.) Pursh 
Convallaria pubescens Willd. Hort. Berol. 45. pl. 45. 1805. 
Polygonatum pubescens Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 234. 1814; Farwell, 
Bull. Torrey Club 42: 253. pl. 13A. 1915. 
Polygonatum multiflorum B americanum Hook. FI. Bor. Amer. 2: 
176. 1840 (in part). 
Polygonatum biflorum Ell.; A. Gray, Manual, Ed. 2, 466. 1856. 
Salomonia biflora Farwell, Rep. Com. Parks Detroit 11: 53. 1900. 
Polygonatum boreale Greene, Leaflets 1: 181. 1906. Farwell, 
Bull. Torrey Club 42: 253. pl. 714A. 1915. 
Known from Massachusetts south to Carolina and west to 
Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. The bounds probably extend 
beyond these limits. 
MassacuusETts: Oak Island, May 23, 1897, J. M. Greenman 
2284; Stony Brook, May 15, 1897, J. M. Greenman 2288; Prov- 
incetown, May 22, 1904, J. M. Greenman 3013. CONNECTICUT?’ 
Norwich, May 25, 1883, W.A. Setchell (Cal.); Waterbury, June 1, 
