CALOCHORTUS LUTEUS. 



YELLOW PRETTY-GRASS. 



NATURAL ORDER, LILIACEiE. 



Calochortus luteus, Douglas. — Stem about three-flowered; leaves convolute-acuminate, 

 shorter than the slender peduncles ; sepals oblong, pointed, and recurved at the apex, 

 scarcely shorter than the petals, yellow ; petals yellow, broadly cuneate, rounded at the 

 apex, bearded across the base, a roundish, red spot near the middle ; anthers as long as 

 the filaments; capsule elliptical; May. (Prof. Wood, in Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, 1S6S, p. 169.) 



E have in Calochortus one of the most interestins; genera 

 of plants growing on the American continent. It was 

 only in the beginning of the present century that the first species 

 was discovered by Frederick Pursh, a Siberian botanist, who came 

 to Philadelphia in i 799, and was gardener to W. Hamilton, whose 

 grounds are now the Woodland's Cemetery of that city. Pursh 

 was a very intelligent man, and made numerous excursions into 

 various parts of the country. The plants collected by him during 

 these excursions afterwards formed the foundation of his " Flora 

 of North America," a work published in London in 18 14, in which 

 the genus Calochortus is first described. The species he discov- 

 ered, C. elegans, was found, according to his statement, in what 

 was then the great Louisiana Territory. No species has ever been 

 seen growing wild this side of the Mississippi, the numerous ones 

 that have been discovered since Pursh s time being native to the 

 country between the Rocky Mountains and the shores of the Pa- 

 cific. A few are found in Mexico, and others extend northward 

 to Oregon. New species continue, at the date of this writing, 

 to be discovered within the limits of the United States, so that 

 the exact range of the genus is not yet determined. 



