WILD BOUVARDIA (Gilia grandiflora, Gray). Flowers fun- 

 nel-form, salmon-color, borne in showy, terminal, hemispher- 

 ical, clammy heads a couple of inches across. Leaves sessile, 

 narrow and at least the upper alternate. Stems 1 to 2 feet 

 high. Blooming in summer in dry ground in California north- 

 ward to Washington, eastward to Nevada and Utah. Very 

 common in the Yosemite region. 



Like so many of the Gilias, this species was long ago intro- 

 duced into cultivation abroad, but under the name Collomia 

 grandiflora, Dougl. The genus Gilia, indeed, has been split up 

 into a dozen or more genera by some botanists; but it is so dif- 

 ficult to establish the distinctions that the best usage has put 

 most of them back into Gilia. About 50 species are indigen- 

 ous to the Western United States. Another familiar one of 

 the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountain region, is the 

 brilliant, scarlet Gilia aggregata, Spreng., of which Doctor 

 Coville records a pretty Klamath Indian belief that in old 

 times the wild doves drank no water but only the nectar of 

 this flower; so that to this day they call it ohl'sam bohn'icas, 

 "the drink-plant of the doves." 



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