502 



Garden and Forest. 



[1SUMBER 513 



western Europe is shown by the existence there of speci- 

 mens already more than 100 feet high, with long- lower 

 branches sweeping the ground. The first attempt to cul- 

 tivate this tree in the eastern states with plants, doubtless 

 of Oregon or California origin, imported from England, were 

 not successful, as they were generally unable to adapt them- 

 selves to our dry, hot summers. But in 1 86 1 Dr. C. C. Parry 

 found the Douglas Spruce in Colorado, and from the seeds 

 which he sent to the Harvard Botanic Garden plants were 

 raised which have proved perfectly hardy here. The largest 

 of these are now more than twenty-five feet high, densely 

 clothed to the ground with vigorous branches, and perfect 

 in color and density of foliage. 



This demonstration of a fact that plants of the same 

 species, raised from seeds gathered in different parts of a 

 wide territory with different climatic conditions, is inter- 

 esting, as it indicates that it may be possible to cultivate 

 other trees here which have heretofore been considered 

 tender, if specially selected seeds are used. In the case of 

 the Douglas Spruce several American nurserymen have not 

 been slow to take the hint, and during the last ten or fifteen 

 years great numbers of the Colorado form have been 

 planted in New England, where the plants are growing 

 rapidly into handsome, healthy trees, promising, if it is safe 

 to judge by the appearance of this tree in its native forests 

 and in Europe, to surpass here in permanence and mature 

 beauty the other conifers of western America. 



The second American species of Pseudotsuga (P. macro- 

 carpa) is a small tree found only on the arid mountains of 

 southern California, which has never been tested here and 

 could never support the cold of a northern winter. 



The next and final number of these notes will be devoted 

 to Abies, the only remaining genus of Coniferee which 

 furnishes hardy plants to our northern gardens. 



C. S. S. 



Liliura parvum and L. parviflorum. 



IN his Synopsis of 'all the known Lilies, published in 1875, 

 which is still the best authority for the nomenclature of 

 this noble genus. Mr. Baker treats Lilium parvum, L. Wal- 

 terii and L. parviflorum as varieties of L. Canadense. In the 

 Botany of California, published in 1880, Dr. Watson follows 

 Dr. Kellogg, who first described L. parvum, considering 

 it a distinct species, and accurately describes Kellogg's typi- 

 cal form, but assigns to it a far more extensive range than it 

 really possesses. Dr. Watson quite overlooked the other 

 forms. At a still later date some English authority gave 

 the name of L. pardalinum, var. minor, to one of the forms 

 of L. parviflorum, which is now quite generally known in 

 European gardens under that name. 



I believe that a much more natural grouping would be 

 to confine the name Lilium parvum to Kellogg's typical 

 form, and to include all of those forms with more or less 

 reflexed or revolute flowers under L. parviflorum. Follow- 

 ing this division, therefore, I will proceed to speak of the 

 typical L. parvum of Dr. Kellogg, the L. Canadense, var. 

 parvum, of Baker. 



Lilium parvum is a lily of high and subalpine regions in 

 the central portion of the California Sierras. So much of 

 the Sierra Nevada is unexplored by botanists that it is hard 

 to set close bounds to the range of a species, but I have 

 good evidence that the species does not extend to Plumas 

 County on the north or farther than the Yosemite Valley on 

 the south. It is found at an altitude of from six to nine 

 thousand feet, and is common along the snow-fed streams 

 which flow into the Truckee and Lake Tahoe on the east, 

 and into the Yuba and American rivers on the west, as 

 well as about the edges of the Tamarack swamps of that 

 elevated region. It is not infrequent at an altitude where 

 the snow lingers until July and August, and is again seen 

 in September or October. 



Lilium parvum is a charming little lily, well worthy of gen- 

 eral cultivation. The soil in the localities where it is found 

 is a granite sand rich in vegetable matter and the drainage 



is good. It can hardly be called a Bog Lily. The stems 

 are slender and leafy, and both stems and leaves are light 

 green. The leaves are from long ovate to broadly lanceo- 

 late. There are a few whorls, but many leaves are 

 scattering. The flowers are horizontal or ascending, fun- 

 nel-formed, with only the tips spreading and a brilliant 

 orange-red in color, dotted with maroon, with the tips a 

 brighter red. They are from an inch and a quarter to an 

 inch and three-quarters long. The size of the plants varies 

 greatly. About the swamps they are often from one to two 

 feet high and few-flowered, but along the banks of streams 

 plants from three to five feet high and many-flowered are 

 common. The bulbs of L. parvum are very small. Selected 

 bulbs will not average above one-fifth of an ounce in 

 weight, and measure an inch and a half in length by 

 half an inch in width. They are rhizomatous, and thickly 

 covered by three or four jointed scales which produce 

 a beautifully-laced effect. They do not have runners 

 like L. Canadense, nor do they ever branch and form mat- 

 like clumps as is the habit of L. pardalinum. Not one 

 bulb in 500 is branching or produces two stalks. Some 

 years ago this Lily was distributed by Messrs- Hallock & 

 Son, Queens, New York, under the name of L. pardalinum, 

 Var. alpinum. 



In bulb, leaf and capsule Lilium parviflorum resembles 

 L. parvum, but is stouter and larger, as a rule. In size the 

 bulbs sometimes approach those of L. pardalinum in size, 

 but the four-jointed scales and lace-like effects are con- 

 stant features, and the bulbs seldom branch and never 

 form the matted clumps so distinctive of the latter species. 

 The stems may be very stout and tall, but the broader 

 leaves, paler foliage and rounder, shorter capsule suffi- 

 ciently distinguish it. There are many forms prevailing 

 over more or less extensive regions. In some forms the 

 flowers are as revolute as those of L. pardalinum, but they 

 are smaller and fragrant, and this species comes into bloom 

 several weeks before L. pardalinum. Mr. Baker says that 

 L. parviflorum bears its flowers in an umbel, and I do not 

 question the correctness of the statement as regards his 

 specimen. Several Californian Lilies carry their flowers in 

 umbels when there are few, and in racemes when there are 

 many. Mr. Baker describes L. rubescens as umbellate, 

 but it is only so when few-flowered. 



The commonest form of Lilium parviflorum is the one 

 distributed as L. pardalinum, var. minor, by some dealers, 

 and still more widely sold as L. parvum. It has a flower 

 like a small reddish orange L. pardalinum, and is found in 

 the middle belt of the Sierra Nevada from Tulare County, 

 in the south, to the base of Mount Shasta. Plants grown 

 from bulbs collected at different points along this line are 

 hardly distinguishable, and plants from Crater Lake, Oregon, 

 seem identical. There is no reason to doubt that L. parvi- 

 florum in some of its forms extends into British Columbia, 

 as mentioned in Baker's Synopsis. 



On the Sierras, in Plumas County, especially on Lassen's 

 Butte, Lilium parviflorum has subalpine forms which are 

 indistinguishable from the typical L. parvum except that the 

 flowers are tardily reflexed from the middle. For sev- 

 eral days they are apt to remain broadly campanulate. In 

 the same region the form is found described by me in 

 Ery/hea in October of this year as L. parvum, var. luteum, 

 which, by the division of L. parvum that I now propose, 

 would become L. parviflorum, var. luteum. This very 

 handsome little Lily is like L. parvum in every particular 

 excepting that the small revolute flowers are a clear orange- 

 red, brightly dotted with scarlet. 



I might mention that a clear orange form of the true 

 Lilium parvum has been figured in Europe as L. parvum, 

 var. luteum. It has funnel-formed flowers. The L. Cana- 

 dense, var. Walkeri, of Baker's Synopsis, I have never seen, 

 and there are doubtless many other transitional forms be- 

 longing to this group, but L. parvum and the type of L. 

 parviflorum are practically all which have been cultivated 



thus far. 

 Ukial.. Calif. Carl Purdy. 



