30 Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



yellow Mariposa growing near the Yosemite is a far more hand- 

 some, robust type. The petals are from two to four inches across, 

 bright yellow, with a rich maroon spot near the center, and the 

 hairy, crescent-shaped honey gland is brown, flecked with maroon. 

 It has a yellowish-green pistil and creamy anthers. C. luteus var. 

 oculatus frequently verges into C. venustus, and gorgeous varieties 

 of both are to be found in the Yosemite regions. Hall mentions, 

 in his "Yosemite Flora," C. venustus and C. nut t alii T. & G. ; this 

 latter variety is rather common, he says, in Yosemite meadows. 

 "The plants are tall and the 'flowers beautifully colored, while at 

 higher altitudes they are much dwarfed and the flowers are very 

 pale." Of C. venustus he says : "This is one of the handsomest of 

 all the Mariposa Lilies and is remarkable for the range of its color 

 forms. Along the Wawona road, near Alder Creek, one form has 

 deep wine-red petals, which are darker towards the middle and are 

 crossed below by a broad yellow band, while on nearby plants the 

 petals are nearly white, with a dark brown eye surrounded by 

 yellowish." 



C. nuttalii, commonly called the "Sego Lily," is the State 

 flower of Utah, where it is highly esteemed not only for its beauty, 

 but also because its edible corms formed a substantial part of the 

 diet of the early Mormon pioneers when they crossed the desert. 

 These flowers are rather common in the Southwest and vary some- 

 what in colors, but are usually a lovely lilac with the usual splashes 

 of color in the center. This flower was named by the Ute Indians. 

 Through a misunderstanding of the word, the Mormons formerly 

 pronounced it "Sago Lily," but "Sego" was the Ute term. They 

 consumed great quantities of its corms. The Indians called these 

 corms "Noonas," and they were esteemed by them as the very great- 

 est of all delicacies. A somewhat amusing story is told of a foreign 

 collector of California bulbs, who was gathering them for the Euro- 

 pean trade. Anxious to secure a quantity of these choice tulip 

 corms, he hired Indians to dig them, but the Indian women ate the 

 "Noonas" as fast as they dug them up. It was only by furnishing 

 them with liberal supplies of food that he could persuade the squaws 

 to part with these wild corms. 



It has always seemed a singular thing to me that while the 

 bulbs or corms of our wild lilies and the roots of other native plants 

 are known to have figured conspicuously in the aborigines' bill of 

 fare, there was no apparent decrease in the early wild gardens. 

 But I have wondered, sometimes, if the scarcity of these lilies at the 

 present time is not due, partly, to the prevalence of collectors, who 

 have been supplying our native bulbs to European and other deal- 

 ers, although there are horticulturists in California who have devoted 

 years to raising their own stock, and who have greatly improved 

 and perfected many varieties suitable for gardens. 



The Digger Indians of California received their name because 

 the first white men saw them digging about in search of lily corms 

 and roots of different sorts "Indian Potatoes" or "Wild Onions," 

 the early settlers called them. When the Indians saw that white 

 men were encroaching upon some of their food supplies (which 



