262 LILIACEAE 



borne by 3s in a head or dense capitate raceme. Pedicels (in ours) with a mem- 

 branous 3-lobed involucre above the middle or at the summit. Perianth-segments 

 6, distinct, spreading, persistent. Stamens 6. Ovary 3-lobed; styles 3, short, 

 distinct. Capsule obovate, acute, beaked by the spreading persistent styles, septi- 

 cidal. Seeds with a membranous coat, in ours tailed at one end. Species about 

 15, mostly North Temperate Zone, a few in the Andes. (Tofield, English bot- 

 anist, of Doncaster, a correspondent of Hudson.) 



1. T. occidentalis Wats. Stems y 2 to 2 feet high, glandular ; leaves 2 to 12 

 inches long, 1 to 3 lines wide ; racemes */2 to 1 inch long ; perianth-segments ob- 

 long, I*/) to 3 lines long ; filaments lanceolate ; capsule 3 to 4 lines long ; seeds 

 with a loose cellular coat, appendaged at the free end with a tail as long or some- 

 what longer than the body. 1 



Mountain bogs, 3500 to 7500 feet : North Coast Ranges from Mendocino Co. 

 north to Siskiyou Co., thence southerly in the Sierra Nevada. North to British 

 Columbia. 



Loca. North Coast Ranges: Mendocino Co.; Trinity Summit, Manning; Dorleska, Salmon 

 Mts., Hall 8658; Onion Patch, w. Siskiyou Co., Jepson 2879; Shackelford Creek, w. Siskiyou 

 Co., Butler 1702; Sisson, Jepson. Sierra Nevada: Lassen Peak, Chesnut & Drew; Colby, 

 Butte Co., S. M. Austin; Heather Lake, El Dorado Co., Laura Dodge; Nellie Lake, Fresno 

 Co., A. L. Grant 1085; Lake Independence, Jepson 8060; Alta Mdws., Sequoia Park, Hopping 

 194; Little Kern River, Purpus 5232. 



Eefs. TOFIELDIA OCCIDENTALIS Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 14:283 (1879), type loc. Mendocino 

 Co., Kellogg $ Harford 1002; MacBride, Contrib. Gray Herb. 49:48 (1917). The involucre 

 varies with age and otherwise from deeply to shallowly lobed in such a way as to give no 

 character for segregation of a series of specimens; in a similar manner the capsular beaks 

 may be either erect or spreading. Therefore, neither T. glutinosa Wats. Bot. Cal. 2:184 (1880) 

 nor T. intermedia Rydb. Bull. Torr. Club, 27:528 (1900) indicate specific entities in California. 

 All California specimens examined show but a single tail to the seed. 



3. XEROPHYLLUM Michx. 



Stem simple, stout and leafy, ending above in a many-flowered raceme, and 

 arising from a tuber-like woody rootstock bearing cord-like roots, the basal leaves 

 in a dense tuft, numerous, narrowly linear and elongated, dry, rough-edged. 

 Flowers white or cream-color, on slender white pedicels. Perianth-segments 6, 

 distinct, several-nerved, persistent. Stamens 6. Ovary 3-lobed ; styles 3, distinct. 

 Capsule chartaceous, loculicidal, or occasionally also septicidal. Seeds 2 to 4 

 in each cell. Species 3, North America. (Greek xeros, dry, and phullon, leaf, 

 the foliage very hard and dry.) 



1. X. tenax Nutt. ELK GRASS. FIRE-LILY. Stem 2 to 6 feet high; basal 

 leaves 1*4 to 3 feet long, 1 to 3 lines wide; raceme dense, % to iy 2 feet long; 

 pedicels 1 to 2 inches long, each with a scarious bract at base, spreading in flower, 

 past anthesis strictly erect, spreading again in fruit; perianth-segments linear- 

 oblong, 4 lines long,. the stamens a little longer. 



Dry ridges : Monterey and northward in the Coast Ranges to Del Norte (Jo., 

 where it is very common ; Sierra Nevada from Placer Co. north to Siskiyou Co. 

 North to British Columbia and Montana. 



The plants commonly bloom only after 5 to 7 years of preparation. May-July. The fibres 

 of the leaves were employed by the Hupas and other native tribes for making garments and 

 for decorative work in baskets, while the bulbous rootstocks furnished a nourishing food after 

 being roasted in a pit for two days. Also called Squaw-grass, Bear-grass, Turkey-beard, Bear- 

 Lily, and Pine-Lily. 



Locs. Mt. Tamalpais (a heavy flowering in May, 1915) ; Sonoma, Bioletti; Ft. Bragg, 

 W. C. Mathews; South Fork Mt., Humboldt Co., Chesnut $ Drew; Preston Peak, Jepson 

 2873; Shelley Creek, Del Norte Co., Jepson; Mt. Eddy, Copeland 3872; Placer Co., M. M. 

 Hardy. 



Refs. XEROPHYLLUM TENAX Nutt. Gen. 1:235 (1818); Jepson, Erythea, 6:75 (1898), 

 Fl. W. Mid. CaL 123 (1901). Helonias tenax Pursh, Fl. 1:243 (1814), type loc. Collins Creek, 

 Ida., Lewis. Xerophyllum setifolium Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1613 (1833), not Michx. 



