LILY FAMILY. Lillaceae. 



Harvest Brodiaea In earl y J une at the time of the ha y 

 Brodiala grandi- harvest, these handsome flowers, which 

 flora (Hookera look like clusters of little blue lilies, begin 

 >rcmaria) to appear among the dried grass of the hill- 



Summer sides and in open places in the woods. 



Cal., Oreg., Wash.They vary in height from a few inches to 

 over a foot and the number of flowers in a 

 cluster also varies very much. Sometimes there are as 

 many as ten of the beautiful blossoms, an inch or more long, 

 with pedicels unequal in length and from one to four inches 

 long, in a large cluster at the top of the stalk, with several, 

 whitish, papery bracts at the base of the cluster. The 

 color of the flowers is usually a deep bright blue shading to 

 violet and the six divisions grow paler toward the base and 

 have a brown stripe on the outside; the buds are greenish, 

 striped with brown. The stamens are translucent white, 

 three ordinary stamens, with long erect anthers, alternating 

 with three without anthers, the latter tongue-shaped and 

 petal-like. The leaves, which are thickish and about the 

 same length as the stalk, have withered away before the 

 flowers bloom. This plant very much resembles Ithuriel's 

 Spear, Triteleia laxa, but three of the stamens are without 

 anthers and the ovary is not on a long stalk. It is the 

 commonest kind around San Francisco. B. minor is much 

 the same, but a smaller plant with fewer and smaller flowers. 

 The three outer divisions are narrow, with pointed tips, 

 and the inner blunt and broad, and the sterile stamens are 

 notched and longer than the fertile ones. This grows on 

 dry hills and plains in middle and southern California. 



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