A REVISION OF THE GENUS CALOCHORTUS. 



BY CARL PURDY. 



Plates XV-XIX. 



Introduction, 



The most widely diffused as well as the handsomest of 

 the liliaceous plants of the Pacific Coast are the Calochorti. 

 On the north they reach British America; one species is to 

 be found as far east as Nebraska; several are natives of 

 northern Mexico; and within these limits no considerable 

 section of country is destitute of some species. 



While the range of the genus is so immense, that of sev- 

 eral of the species is also very extensive. What a diversity 

 of conditions C. nuttallii meets in its range from the west- 

 ern side of the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the 

 Snake River to Arizona. C. nitidus is found from the 

 meadows of eastern Oregon to the shores of Yellowstone 

 Lake, C. albus from San Diego to Tehama, and many 

 others are scattered over hundreds of miles. A species 

 distributed over a region so varied in soil, climate, and alti- 

 tude cannot but be variable; and it hardly need be added 

 that the genus Calochortus is a very difficult one for botan- 

 ists to deal with. 



I long since became convinced that it is only in the gar- 

 den, where plants from different localities can be grown 

 under identical conditions, that the relationship between 

 apparently different forms can be satisfactorily determined. 

 For some years I have grown a large variety of Calochorti 

 in my grounds, and have had nearly every known species 

 under cultivation, often in many forms. The culture of 

 Calochorti is most interesting, though not unattended with 

 cultural difficulties ; but the beautiful flowers amply repay 

 all efforts, and the garden has proved the identity of forms 



[ 107 ] November 27, igoi. 



