38 LILIACEAE (LILY FAMILY) 



D. lanuginosum. Leaves taper-pointed. Flowers solitary or in 

 pairs. Perianth soon spreading, twice the length of the stamens, 

 greenish. Stigmas 3. Rich woods. 



POLYGONATUM 



Flowers perfect. Fruit a berry. Perianth-segments connate. 

 Stem leafy. Peduncles axillary, 1-8 flowered. Perianth cylin- 

 drical, 6-lobed, the 6 stamens inserted about the middle of the tube, 

 and included in it. Berry globular, black or blue. Perennial 

 herbs, with simple stems from creeping knotted rootstocks, naked 

 below, bearing above the nearly sessile or half-clasping leaves, 

 and the axillary nodding greenish flowers. (Name from polu, 

 many, and gonu, knee, alluding to the numerous joints of the root- 

 stock.) 



P. biflorum. Small Solomon's Seal. 

 Glabrous, except the nearly sessile leaves, 

 which are usually minutely pubescent as 

 well as pale or glaucous beneath. Stem 

 slender, 3-9 dm. high, peduncles 1-3 but 

 mostly 2-flowered, filaments slightly rough- 

 ened, inserted toward the summit of the 

 perianth. Wooded hillsides. 

 P. commutatum. Large Solomon's Seal. 

 Polygonatum biflorum, Gfabrous throughout. Stem stout, 0.6-2 m. 

 Solomon's seal. high. Leaves partly clasping or the upper 



nearly sessile. Peduncles several flowered. 

 Filaments smooth and naked, or nearly so, and inserted in the middle 

 of the tube. Meadows and river banks. "June. 



MEDEOLA 



Flowers perfect. Perianth-segments distinct. Style branches 

 distinct. Fruit a berry. The cauline leaves in 2 whorls. Flowers 

 in umbels. Styles filiform. (Named for the sorceress Medea, 

 for its supposed medicinal virtues.) 



M. virginiana. Cucumber-root. Perianth recurved, the 3 sepals and 

 3 petals oblong and alike, pale greenish-yellow, deciduous. Stamens 

 6, the anthers being shorter than the slender filaments. Styles stig- 

 matic on the upper side, recurved from the globose ovary, long and 

 thread-like, deciduous. Fruit a globose, dark purple berry with few 



