have seen a more strikingly handsome bulbous plant : no 

 art can do justice to the rich colour of the flower, which, 

 although of the most intense purple, yet is so relieved by 

 the satiny sparkling lustre of the cuticle, as to have quite a 

 light and elegant effect. i 



It has been hitherto cultivated in a peat border, under 



a north wall, where it grows freely, proving perfectly hardy : 



a few seeds were produced; and it is probable that when 



the bulbs are stronger, it will increase readily in that 

 manner. 



That this is the real Quamass or Camass root of the 

 North-west American Indians, we know upon the authority 

 of Mr. Douglas, who found it in the greatest profusion on 

 alluvial, grassy, and partly overflowed soils on the Co- 

 lumbia, in 1825. He also met with a white variety, or 

 rather perhaps species, of which specimens are in his 

 Herbarium. 



It is no doubt also the Phalangium Quamash of Pursh, 

 whose description is as applicable to the plant as could be 

 expected from its having been drawn up from a dried speci- 

 men. But we are by no means of opinion that it is the 

 same as a supposed synonym, the Phalangium esculentum 

 of Nuttall, which that author discovered near the confluence 

 of Huron river with Lake Erie, and near St. Louis, Louisiana, 

 and which he also describes as common on the lowest banks 

 of the Ohio. On the contrary, it can scarcely be doubted 

 that both Mr. Nuttall and Dr. Torrey, as well as others 

 who have copied them, apply the name to the pale blue- 

 flowered Scilla esculenta ; a most undoubted Scilla, well 

 figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 1574. This eastern 

 plant has probably been supposed to be the same as the 

 western species, in consequence of its bulbs also being 

 edible, and because Pursh describes the flowers of the 

 Quamash as pale blue; an error that was easily made in 

 drawing up a description from a dried specimen, the only 

 materials in his possession. 



In Scilla esculenta the leaves are glaucous ; the flowers 

 pale blue, and much smaller ; the segments have a uniform 

 direction and expansion; the stamens are shorter, and 

 spread equally round the pistillum, which is straight. In 



none of these important characters does the plant now 



