GENERA CONFUSED UNDER BRODI^A. 135 



dalupe. Closely related to the next but many times larger; 

 best distinguished by the elongated umbel, of which the 

 central pedicels are longest and the outer gradually shorter, 

 giving the cluster the peculiar configuration of the raceme of 

 B.congesta; indeed, the pedicels need only to be united, and 

 then we should liave a repetition of the inflorescence of that 

 species. The corms are the largest in the genus, often two 

 inches in diameter; and those brought from Guadalupe and 

 grown at Berkeley flower simultaneously with B. congesta, 

 many weeks later than the species to which, morpliologi- 

 cally, it is nearly related, namely — 



B. CAPITATA, Benth. Scape 6 — 18 inches high; leaves 

 nearly as long, 3 — 6 lines wide : bracts elliptic-oblong, ob- 

 tuse or acute, herbaceous and, in California, of a rich dark 

 violet-purple: pedicels unequal but the outer elongated, not 

 the inner, forming a loose, broad umbel: perianth as in the 

 preceding, but smaller: corona connivent over the anthers. 

 —PL Hartw. 339; Watson 1. c: 3Ella, Baker. 1. c. 381: 

 Dichelostemina capitatum, Wood. 1. c. in part, doubtless. 



Central California to Utah and New Mexico and southward 

 to the northern districts of Mexico, flowering from January 

 to April. In the vicinity of San Francisco, hillsides may be 

 found empurpled with it in early March. It commonly 

 grows in masses, on very open stony ground, the weak 

 scapes often twining about one another for mutual support- 

 In this species alone are the umbels occasionally compound, 

 the elongated outer pedicels becoming true peduncles, each 

 bearing its bracted umbel within the common spathe. The 

 figure in the Botanical Magazine, t. 5912, does not fail to 

 illustrate the dark, almost metallic beauty of the bracts 

 which is a fine peculiarity of this species, at least in Cali- 

 fornia; but the stamens are wrongly represented as exposed 

 by an open corona, whereas in nature the parts of it are 

 sufficiently convergent to hide them. 



