CALOCHORTUS LUTEUS. YELLOW PRETTY-GRASS. I 39 



name is a very appropriate one. It is to be regretted that the 

 translation of this name, " Pretty-Grass," did not become part 

 of the language of the people ; but " Butterfly Weed," " Mari- 

 posa Lily," and " Wild Tulip " have become so common in 

 California, that there seems to be hardly any chance for the 

 plant ever to get a distinctive appellation of its own. In the 

 hope, however, that Pretty-Grass may yet become popular, we 

 shall use this name in our present chapter. 



Calochortus luteus, the Yellow Pretty-Grass, was first dis- 

 covered by Mr. Douglas, who, in 1831, collected in California 

 for the Royal Horticultural Society; and in the society's garden 

 at Chiswick, near London, it flowered about the year named. 



As Professor Wood says, in the description we have quoted, 

 it has generally three flowers on a stalk ; but as it sometimes 

 comes with but a single flower, it will serve a good purpose to 

 illustrate a plant in that condition, as showing the range of vari- 

 ation. It will also be seen, by reference to the plate, that our 

 plant varies in another particular from Prof. Wood's description, 

 the red spot being, not in the middle, but rather lower down on 

 the petals. Our drawing is from a cultivated specimen, brought 

 from California by Mr. Edwin Lonsdale, of Germantown. 



It has been a matter of surprise that so pretty a flower, intro- 

 duced to Europe under the auspices of its leading horticultural 

 society, should be so rarely met with in cultivation. But this is 

 chiefly owing, perhaps, to the necessity of importing roots direct; 

 for according to our experience in raising the plants from seed, 

 it must often take many years to procure flowering bulbs in that 

 way. Seeds that we have sown only made bulbs the size of 

 grains of wheat the first season ; and though these bulbs pro- 

 duced leaves annually, they had not much increased in size after 

 several years. We have heard of one grower, who soon had 

 flowering bulbs from seed, but we think this success must be rare. 

 Another difficulty is this, that the roots do not seem to increase 

 rapidly by offsets, as some bulbs do. The plant from which we 

 took our drawing made but two small bulbs, much smaller than 



