132 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIEMCES. [Proc. 3D Ser. 



23. Calochortus weedii Wood. 



Plate XVII. 



Calochortus weedii Wood, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1868, p. 169. 



Corm deep seated, heavily coated with coarse dark brown fiber; stem 1-3 

 feet high, stout and flexuous, usually branched, leafy, one to many flowered, 

 not bulbiferous; radical leaf lanceolate-acuminate (the same as in C. albus), 

 solitary, broad, shining, flat and not channeled; cauline leaves broad, acumi- 

 nate; sepals often exceeding petals, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 yellowish within, often with a hairy spot at base, with scarious margins; pet- 

 als cuneate, denticulate, either rounded or more or less truncate above, 

 12-15 lines long, orange colored and covered with long silky yellow hairs, 

 each set in a dark brown spot, upper quarter usually naked; gland small, 

 circular to oblong, densely matted with short hairs; filaments filiform, exceed- 

 ing the oblong anthers; capsule narrow, attenuate upward, 1% inches long. 



Described from specimens from San Marcos, San Diego 

 County. 



"San Diego." 



C. weedii in its various forms is found in the Coast 

 Range of California, from San Luis Obispo County south 

 to Lower California. It is easily distinguished from other 

 Mariposa Tulips by the single large radical leaf (one to two 

 feet long by five to eight lines wide), the very heavy, 

 coarse, stringy, fibrous coating of the bulb, and the long 

 silky hairs springing from the brown dots on the petals. 



The species is almost as variable as C . venustus, each 

 variation having its own range, where it is found to the 

 exclusion of all others. 



Beginning at San Diego, we have the typical C. weedii, 

 a large orange-colored flower, covered with yellow hairs 

 and dotted with brown. In this form the petals are usually 

 full, although occasionally somewhat truncated. Nearly 

 all of the C. weedii in San Diego County, whether in the 

 interior or on the coast, conform to the type. 



23^. C. weedii var. purpurascens Watson, Proc. Amer. 

 Acad., Vol. XIV, 1879, P* 265. (C phimmercc Greene, 

 Pittonia, Vol. II, 1890, p. 70). Going north to Los Ange- 

 les and San Bernardino, we find a broad belt of country 

 where the flower of C. weedii is still full petaled, but the 

 color is lilac or lilac purple. While possessing hardly any 



