C 40 ] 



CLINTONIA 



June 2, 1853. Clintonia borealis, a day or two. 

 This is perhaps the most interesting and neatest of 

 what I may call the liliaceous plants we have. Its 

 beauty at present consists chiefly in its commonly 

 three very handsome, rich, clear dark-green leaves. 

 They are perfect in form and color, broadly oblan- 

 ceolate with a deep channel down the middle, un- 

 injured by insects, arching over from a centre at the 

 ground, sometimes very symmetrically disposed in a 

 triangular fashion; and from their midst rises the 

 scape a foot high, with one or more umbels of "green 

 bell-shaped flowers," yellowish-green, nodding or 

 bent downward, but without fragrance. In fact, 

 the flower is all green, both leaves and corolla. The 

 leaves alone — and many have no scape — would 

 detain the walker. Its berries are its flower. A 

 single plant is a great ornament in a vase, from 

 the beauty of its form and the rich, unspotted green 

 of its leaves. 



Journal, v, 218, 219. 



