White and Greenish 



Hairy, or True, or Twin-flowered Solomon's 



Seal 



{Polygonatum biflorum) Lily-of-the- Valley family 



Flowers — Whitish or yellowish green, tubular, bell-shaped, i to 4, 

 but usually 2, drooping on slender peduncles from leaf axils. 

 Perianth 6-lobed at entrance, but not spreading; 6 stamens, 

 the filaments roughened; i pistil. Stem: Simple, slender, 

 arching, leafy, 8 in. to 3 ft. long. Leaves : Oval, pointed, 

 or lance-shaped, alternate, 2 to 4 in. long, seated on stem, 

 pale beneath and softly hairy along veins. Rootstoch : Thick, 

 horizontal, jointed, scarred. {Polygonatum = many joints). 

 Fruit: A blue-black berry. 



Preferred Habitat— "W ooAs, thickets, shady banks. 



Flowering Seaion — April — June. 



Distribution — ^New Brunswick to Florida, westward to Michigan. 



From a many-jointed, thick rootstock a single graceful curved 

 stem arises each spring, withers after fruiting, and leaves a round 

 scar, whose outlines suggested to the fanciful man who named 

 the genus the seal of Isiael's wise king. Thus one may know the 

 age of a root by its seals, as one tells that of a tree by the rings in 

 its trunk. 



The dingy little cylindric flowers, hidden beneath the leaves, 

 may be either self-poUenized or cross-pollenized by the bumble- 

 bees to which they are adapted. " We may suppose," says Pro- 

 fessor Robertison, "that the pendulous position of the flowers 

 owes its origin to the fact that it renders them less convenient to 

 other insects, but equally convenient to the higher bees which are 

 the most efficient pollinators ; and that the resulting protection to 

 pollen and nectar is merely an incidental effect." Certain Lepi- 

 doptera, and small insects which crawl into the cylinder, visit all 

 the Solomon's seals. 



The Smooth Solomon's Seal (JP. commutatum or P. giganteum 

 of Gray), with much the same range as its smaller relative, grows 

 in moist woods and along shaded streams. It is a variable, capri- 

 cious plant, with a stout or slender stem, perhaps only one foot 

 high, or again towering above the tallest man's head ; the oval 

 leaves also vary greatly in breadth and length; and a solitary 

 flower may droop from an axil, or perhaps eight dingy greenish 

 cylinders may hang in a cluster. But the plant is always smooth 

 throughout. Even the incurved filaments which obstruct the en- 

 trance to this flower are smooth where those of the preceding 

 species are rough-hairy. The style is so short that it may never 

 come in contact with the anthers, although the winged visitors 

 must often leave pollen of the same flower on the stigma. / 



II 161 ' 



