February 3, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



43 



held together by the roots of Willows set on their margins, 

 those singularly prim Willows which cast but little shade. 

 As they are of richest soil and are easily watered by splash- 

 ing or dipping water from the surrounding canals they are 

 kept in constant cultivation and to their fullest capacity. 

 Besides luxuriant crops of corn, garden vegetables of all 

 kinds and choice flowers are grown here for the city mar- 

 kets. On many of the nearer of these plats stand by the 

 water's edge, with canoes drawn up the banks before them, 

 the pretty huts of the owners, the walls of which may be 

 formed of the canes of Arundo neatly fastened in line, the 

 thatch formed of its leaves or of marsh grass. Mere bas- 

 ket houses are these, yet they suffice for the simple needs 

 of these happy children of nature. On several visits to 

 these strange scenes we engaged Indians with their boats 

 to convey us through the maze of canals to those more 

 remote in pursuit of water plants or marsh plants. Besides 

 the yellow-flowered Nymphasa Mexicana, a white-flowered 

 one was common in still water, presumably N. tussilagi- 

 folia, Lehm. The flowers of the latter are carefully gath- 

 ered and appear in great abundance in the flower markets 

 of the city throughout most of the summer. Far more 

 multiplied than these was Eichornia crassipes, Knuth, with 

 lovely bluish flowers, of which sheets of blooming plants 

 completely covered the surface of certain coves. The flow- 

 ers of this plant being too delicate to bear handling like 

 Water-lilies, the entire plant, carefully set in pots or baskets, 

 is carried to town for sale. Along the banks of the canals 

 stood the most stately and showy of Golden-rods, Solidago 

 paniculata, DC. 



As for the snowy mountains on the south-east rim of the 

 valley, Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl, they were not to be 

 included in the field of a single season. I only looked up 

 at them on an autumn day from underneath the sombre 

 giant Cypresses which crown the Holy Hill of Amecameca, 

 scanning with somewhat of awe their vast slopes, cragged 

 and furrowed indescribably. 



After the middle of October the rainy season drew to a 

 close. With the drying of the soil and the less interrupted 

 sunshine most plants hastened to maturity and decay. A 

 few, chiefly half shrubs, were making slow preparations for 

 blooming in winter, according to their habit. I could not 

 linger for these, since he who collects in botany must dis- 

 tribute also. So, on the morning of the 8th of November, 

 I was compelled to turn from the valley which had yielded 

 me so much pure delight, from its charm so difficult to 

 define, to travel under skies growing leaden into our drear 

 northern winter. _ _ _ . . 



Charlotte, Vt. C. G. Pnngk. 



Lilium Humboldtii and Allied Species. 



THE typical Lilium Humboldtii has a large ovoid bulb, 

 more or less oblique, and occasionally prolonged 

 laterally in a semi-rhizomatous manner. The scales are 

 thick and the bulb very compact. In height the stem is often 

 above four feet. I have seen it nine feet high, and in one in- 

 stance a single stalk bore eighty buds. Ten or fifteen flowers 

 in a panicle are common. The lower pedicels are longer, 

 and growing gradually shorter form a broadly conical 

 panicle. The flowers are large and of much substance, of 

 a uniform rich reddish orange spotted with maroon and 

 strongly reflexed. Nature has provided for the weight of 

 the great panicles by giving this Lily a very stout erect 

 stem, which is well furnished with leaves in full whorls. 



In its native home in the foot-hills of the main Sierra 

 Nevada, Lilium Humboldtii usually follows the belt of 

 Yellow Pine, Pinus ponderosa, and grows in the open 

 woods. It does not often grow above the four thousand- 

 feet line, nor on the lower foot-hills. Just how far north 

 it extends I have never been able to learn. I know of it 

 in Tehama County, California, but have never seen nor 

 heard of it in the Mount Shasta region. It has never been 

 reliably reported from any point in the northern Coast 

 Range of California, although I have recently learned of a 

 Lily in Humboldt County which can only be L. Hum- 



boldtii or an unnamed species. Neither have I been able 

 to learn of this Lily in the foot-hills of the lower San Joa- 

 quin valley, nor farther south than the Yosemite road. 

 Generally it is strictly a mountain species, but there is one 

 notable exception in the upper Sacramento valley. Some 

 fifteen years ago it grew sparsely at one location in the 

 Oak forest which borders the river. It is now abundant 

 for twelve or fifteen miles along the river. In El Dorado 

 County I saw it flowering to perfection last June. A fire had 

 gone through some second-growth Pines a year or two be- 

 fore, and the magnificent panicles made a gorgeous display 

 high above the Ferns and weeds. The top of the hill had 

 been cleared some years before and was cultivated in grass 

 and grain, but in the new stubble many stubs of the Lily 

 stalks could be seen, and from wounds made by the plow 

 the bulbs had been broken into groups of from two or three 

 to a dozen bulbs. The Lilies are evidently on the increase 

 under the conditions, and the bulbs were very healthy. 

 As a cultural hint I would say that L. Humboldtii always 

 grows on well-drained soil. The subsoil is usually rocky, 

 the upper soil clayey or volcanic. 



In southern California there are two other strongly 

 marked types of Lilium Humboldtii. Of these L. Hum- 

 boldtii, var. magnificum, is nearest the northern form. This 

 superb Lily has a large bulb, which is usually broader and 

 rounder than in the type, and which speedily turns purple 

 on exposure to the air. At its best it is even sturdier in 

 growth than the type. The foliage is similar, dark green 

 and glossy ; the stem is much darker. The flowers, while 

 of the same form and borne in a similar deltoid panicle, 

 are differently colored. At the middle of the flower the 

 ground-color is a rich orange-red. The maroon spots are 

 surrounded by a reddish circle. On the upper half the 

 reddish circles become larger, until they merge into each 

 other at points, making an irregular combination of dark 

 maroon spots, red ocellations, and of dark reddish orange 

 ground in blotches. This form of L. Humboldtii is found 

 in the San Bernardino Mountains which make the southern 

 end of the Sierra Nevada, in the Coast Range, as far north 

 as Santa Barbara, in the Jacinto Mountains, and on some 

 of the islands off the coast of southern California. There 

 are some variations within this range, but I am satisfied 

 that bulbs from all of these localities grown side by side 

 would prove practically identical. From the cultivator's 

 standpoint it is important to observe that while the L. Hum- 

 boldtii of the northern Sierra seldom, if ever, flowers the 

 first year, an ordinary bulb of the variety magnificum will 

 bloom well the year it is planted, while even small bulbs 

 of L. Bloomerianum almost always do. My information 

 is that the variety magnificum usually grows in the deep 

 debris near the streams in shaded mountain canons. 



Lilium Bloomerianum is to the variety magnificum as a 

 pigmy to a giant. Two or three feet usually measures its 

 slender pale stem, and it is sparsely flowered. The much 

 smaller flowers have a paler orange ground and are not so 

 richly colored. The ocellations and red-blotched apex of 

 segments are the same. The bulbs are small, not averaging 

 one-fourth the size of those of the other forms. I have 

 referred before to the peculiar two or three jointed scales. 

 I have seen bulbs in which nearly all of the upper joints 

 readily rubbed off, leaving a mere stub of a bulb. L. 

 Bloomerianum is found in the Pine belt of the high moun- 

 tains of San Diego County. 



The following figures, showing the average size of flow- 

 ering bulbs of the forms of Lilium Humboldtii, may be of 

 interest to some : In 750 bulbs of the typical L. Humboldtii 

 196 were from 9 to 12 inches in circumference, 351 from S 

 to 9 inches in circumference, and 203 from 7 to S inches. 

 The latter averaged 373 ounces in weight; second size, 

 4^ ounces, and largest size, 9 ounces, with a few 14 ounces 

 in weight. Bulbs of L. Humboldtii, var. magnificum, 

 measure about the same, excepting that a few exceed these 

 measurements. 



Large bulbs of Lilium Bloomerianum will measure 6 

 inches in circumference and weigh 2^3 ounces. Very 



