CHOCOLATE LILY (Fritillaria biflora, Lindl.). Flowers 

 nodding, bell-shaped, brownish-purple tinged with green to 

 dark brown or nearly black, borne from 1 to 3 (sometimes as 

 many as 10, according to Miss Parsons) on a stem from 6 to 18 

 inches high; leaves lanceolate, 2 to 4 inches long, scattered or 

 somewhat whorled and mostly near the base. Blooming from 

 February till April in open places in the California foothills 

 and on grassy slopes from San Diego to Mendocino, but com- 

 monest in Southern California. 



The Chocolate Lily is the Cleopatra of the Fritillarias the 

 darkest, and one of the loveliest, of a genus that is a source of 

 peculiar delight to the flower lover. Of the 10 or 12 species 

 indigenous to the United States, all are Western (most of them 

 confined to the Pacific Slope) and are of several different colors. 

 The Yellow Fritillary (F. pudica, Spreng.) is a pretty favorite, 

 in yellow, with children of Nevada and Utah; F. recurva, 

 Benth, is regal with racemes of flowers scarlet without, and 

 orange and scarlet within, borne on stems a foot to a foot and 

 a half high. It is found in the mountains of Northern Cali- 

 fornia and of Oregon. There is also a species, F. liliacea, Lindl., 

 with greenish-white flowers, which one occasionally comes upon 

 in Central California. 



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