250 PITTONIA. 



Your Fritillaria recurva, var. coccmea is a clearly marked 

 species. It is common in Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma 

 counties in certain places. I liave it from Bartlett's Springs; 

 also from several stations not far from Ukiah; and again, 

 from Bound Valley, fifty miles to tlie northward. Years ago 

 I thought it new and sent it to Mr. Watson. He iiifonned 

 me that he considered it to be the typical F. recurva; then 

 I concluded that plant of the Sierra, which we had always 

 supposed to be the type, would have to be the variety. Oat- 

 side of the points named in your description, the bulbs of the 

 two are quite different. * * * 



Yours truly, 



Cael Purdy. 



F 



After all that Mr. Purdy adds to our knowledge of the 



and it will take the name Fritillahia coccinea. The late Mr. 

 Watson was cariously in error when he supposed it to be the 

 typical F. recurva, w^iich species had its very name from the 

 fact that its sepals and petals are abruptly recurved at the 

 tips. No other Fritillaria bears that mark but the one of 

 the Sierra Nevada; hence that must be the plant for which 

 Eeutham made the name. Nor is it in the least degree prob- 

 able that he ever saw a specimen of F. coccinea; the country 



which it inhabits not having been entered by any botanist in 

 his time. 



Piespectiug the hybrid origin of Bkodlea yenusta, I am 

 not quite convinced that Messrs. Clarke and Purdy are cor- 

 rect. I should, at all events, need other evidence beyond the 

 mere fact that the plant is found only where B. Ida Maia 

 {Brevoorlia Ida Maia, Wood) and B. congesta grow together. 

 It is characteristic of natural hybrids to differ greatly among 

 themselves, some individuals bearing stronger resemblance 

 to one of the parent species, others more like the other par- 

 ent. Perhaps, however, some such variability as this is to 

 be understood when Mr. Purdy speaks of a tendency in the 

 seedlings to revert to one or the other parent species. But, 

 beyond all this, I have an impression that the foliage of B. 

 venasta is strikingly unlike that of either of the supposed 



