The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
VOL. IV. JANUARY, ro15. rf NOS. 1, 2. 
THE ECOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF POLYsjtheon's: 
GONATUM COMMUTATUM. / 
BY RICHARD VOGT. Xa 
On account of its remarkably slow growth the plant which 
forms the subject of the following notes was expected to show 
peculiarities of both ecology and structure. The absence also of 
' seedlings readily to be found by the superficial observer led us 
to seek more carefully for such specimens. As a result of these 
investigations we obtained what seemed to us rather interesting 
facts regarding the habits and the anatomy of the plant in 
various stages of development. 
HISTORY. , 
The genus Polygonatum, to which the plant we have studied 
belongs, was first named by the Greek Dioscorides,' a contemporary 
of Pliny. The plants were recognized by the name Polygonatum 
by nearly all pre-Linnaean authors as will be seen in the accom- 
panying list of synonyms. Some of the older authors using one ° 
worded names for genera took the common vernacular one corres- 
ponding to Solomon’s Seal and called the plant Szgillum Sala- 
montis: e. g., Brunfels, Gesner, and Tragus. Anguillara and 
Caesalpinus called the type plant of the genus Frasvznella. 
Heister? rejected all older names and. substituted the name Sala- 
monia in honor of King Solomon. Linnaeus? did not recognize 
the genus of the ancients but referred the plants to his newly 
made genus Convallaria of which the lily-of-the-valley” was the 
type. The plant on which Dioscorides founded the genus, and 
which since Linnaeus is still considered the type of the genus 
Polygonatum, is Convallaria Polygonatum, Linn. As early as 1549 
® Dioscorides, Mat. Med. 4 : 5. ? Heister, Syst. 5 (1748). 
Ss intiaeiss . Ce oye, 1753); Gens p: 96 (2737)3 p: 148) (1754) Sp: 
—Pl. p. 314 (1753), 
