THE CAMASSIA 265 



ers, with wide petals. I introduced many years 

 ago a modified variety of the species that was 

 somewhat dwarfed as to leaf and stem, but in 

 which the flowers had been greatly enlarged, the 

 petals broadened and the color changed to a pure 

 dark blue. 



As these experiments continued, my interest in 

 the camassia increased, and attention was given 

 to the bulb of the plant as well as to the flower 

 and I soon began working with another species, 

 the Camassia Cusickii } which has relatively large 

 bulbs; and with another of the well-known 

 native species, Camassia esculenta, the bulbs of 

 which are much smaller, but of superior edible 

 quality. 



Most of the work in hybridizing and selective 

 breeding has been done with the three species just 

 named, but I have also raised somewhat exten- 

 sively two other species, known as C. HoweUii 

 and C. Fraseri, as well as a great number of wild 

 varieties of all the different species from British 

 America, Washington, Oregon, California, Ne- 

 vada, Idaho, and western Canada. From the out- 

 set, individual plants were selected of each species 

 and varieties that were the best to be obtained. 

 Here, as so often elsewhere, it was possible to 

 produce considerable improvement merely by 

 selecting individual plants that had the most 



