Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 27 



Mariposa Lily (Calochortus) 



By Bertha M. Rice 



The Mariposa Lily inspired one of the finest poems in the Eng- 

 lish language. I refer to the exquisite tribute to this beautiful blos- 

 som by California's poet laureate, Ina Coolbrith. Nor is Miss Cool- 

 brith the only famed Westerner whose worshipful praise of the 

 Mariposa is engraved in the literature of the West. John Muir's 

 outburst of adoration for a member of this lily family is, I think, 

 the highest tribute ever paid by man to a flower, although the species 

 to which he refers is quite a different one from the airy-winged 

 butterfly tulip which Miss Coolbrith had in mind. 



C. albus, whose common name is "Lantern of the Fairies," 

 belongs to that section of the genus known as Globe Tulip. Of this 

 lovely blossom, the great naturalist wrote : 



"Found a lovely lily (Calochortus albus) in a shady adenostoma 

 thicket near Coulterville. It is white with a faint purplish tinge 

 inside at the base of the petals, a most impressive plant, pure as a 

 show crystal, one of the plant saints- that all must love and be made 

 so much the purer by it every time it is seen. It puts the roughest 

 mountaineer on his good behavior. With this plant the whole world 

 would seem rich though none other existed. It is not easy to keep 

 on with the camp crowd while such plant people are standing preach- 

 ing by the wayside." 



There are three groups of Calochortus : The Mariposa Lilies 

 with their lovely cup-shaped flowers ; the Globe Tulip with nodding, 

 globular flowers, and the exquisite little Star Tulips with erect, star- 

 like blossoms. 



Almost every locality has its "Mariposa." There are forty or 

 more varieties in California and all of them are extremely beautiful. 

 There are many forms which seem to hybridize until only experts 

 can tell one from another, and botanists are forever disagreeing on 

 the nomenclature. It would probably be more correct to say Mari- 

 posa Tulip than Mariposa Lily, for botanists place them in the tulip 

 family. The rather tall, cup-shaped, or open campanulate flowers 

 on very erect stems resemble tulips. The California varieties, many 

 of them, are said to be more delicately beautiful than the tulips of 

 Europe. 



When speaking of "Mariposa," it seems well to remember that 

 the name was given by the early Spanish-Californians and means 

 "Butterfly," which is very appropriate; the flowers resemble nothing 

 so much as delicately tinted and mottled butterflies hovering over 

 the grass on open glades and fields. Their fragile, grass-like stems 

 are so delicately green and tall, and so lightly and airily do the 

 blossoms nod in the passing breezes, that I am always reminded, 

 when coming across them, of some beautiful lines written by Carroll 

 de Wilton Scott, of San Diego: 



