Box.— Vol. II.] PURDY — CALOCHORTUS. II 7 



sepals naked, rarely spotted; capsule elliptical or broadly oblong, deeply tri- 

 quetrous and septicidal, the thin compressed lobes acute or winged; seeds 

 ascending, close and pitted, the testa mostly brownish. 



Group I. Globe Tulips. 

 Flowers subglobose, nodding. Woodland plants; California. 



I. Calochortus albus Dotigl. 



Calochortus albus Douglas in litt. 



Cyclobothra alba Bentham, Trans. Hort. Soc, N. S., Vol. I, p. 413, PI. XIV, 

 fig. 3; Bot. Register, Vol. XX, 1835, Tab. 1661. - 



Stem stout, glaucous, usually branching, a foot or two high; radical leaves 

 a foot or two long, 8-12 lines wide, lanceolate-acuminate; bracts large and 

 foliaceous, 1-5 inches long, 4-8 lines wide; sepals shorter than petals, 

 ovate-acuminate, greenish white; petals pure white, purplish at base, ovate- 

 orbicular, acutish, 12-15 lines long, with scattering long silky hairs above 

 the gland ; gland lunate, shallow, with four transverse imbricated scales, 

 fringed with close short yellow or white glandular hairs ; anthers oblong- 

 obtuse, mucronate; ovary attenuate above; capsule i or 2 inches long, 6-12 

 lines broad, abruptly short-beaked; seeds brown, pitted. 



The original specimens are in all probability from Mon- 

 terey, as Douglas visited there, where the species is plentiful. 



C. albus is found in the Coast Range of California, from 

 San Francisco Bay south to San Diego County, and in the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, from Butte County south to San 

 Diego County. 



There is quite a difference between the plants of the 

 Coast Range and those of the Sierra Nevada. The flowers 

 of the former are darker in color, often tinged with rose, 

 and with petals thicker, more strongly inarched. The petals 

 never open out sufficiently to show the inside of the flower, 

 which after being in bloom a few days is half opened. 

 Calochortus amcemis Greene is really a color form of this 

 Sierran form of Calochortus albus; but owing to the fact that 

 the original locality of C. albus is unknown, the writer hesi- 

 tates to erect either the form from the Coast Range or that 

 from the Sierra Nevada into a new species. 



Several variations of the form of the Coast Range have 

 been described, some as species and some as varieties; but 

 I fail to discover any characters by which they may readily 

 be recognized. 



