LILY FAMILY. 101 



5. B. californica Jepson, n. comb. Twining Brodiaea. Scape roughish, 2 

 or 3 ft. high and lax, or twining over bushes and attaining a height of 7 or 8 

 ft.; conn nearly 1 in. broad; leaves 1 ft. long or more, 4 to 6 lines broad, 

 earinate; umbels short and dense, 18 to 30-flowered; pedicels y 2 to 1 in. long; 

 perianth rose-red or pinkish, 6 to 8 lines long; tube 3 to 4 lines long and 

 broad, 6-angled, the angles produced into sacs somewhat above the middle; 

 segments rotate, their tips recurved; stamens 3, inserted on the throat opposite 

 the inner segments, their filaments short, winged, emarginate; staminodia 3, 

 opposite the outer segments, ligulate, emarginate ; capsule ovate, acuminate, 

 on a short stipe; seeds angled, black, usually 1 in each cell. — (Stropholirion 

 calif ornieum Torr. Brodiaea volubilis Baker. Hookera volubilis Jepson.) 



Hill country of the Coast Eanges and foothills of the Sierra Nevada. 



6. B. congesta Smith. Ookctw. Scape 2 to 3i/> (or even 5) ft. high, often 

 tlexuous; heads short-racemose, 6 to 16-flowered, subtended by 3 to 5 ovate sub- 

 aeuminate bracts 4 lines long; leaves as long or nearly as long as the scape, 

 2 to 6 lines wide; flowers blue or purplish, 7 to 8 lines long, in a dense head; 

 perianth-segments spreading, oblong, shorter or longer than the tube, which 

 is slightly constricted at apex, anthers 3, sessile; staminodia deeply cleft, 

 wholly sterile, surpassing the anthers; capsule sessile, 5 lines long. — (Hookera 

 congesta Jepson.) 



Open hills in the Coast Eanges from the Oakland Hills northward. Apr.- 

 May. 



7. B. capitata Benth. Blue Dicks. Scapes erect, 7 to 14 in. high, ending 

 in a head-like umbel of 7 to 8 flowers, with about 4 dark purple or metallic 

 bracts; bracts round-ovate or elliptic-oblong, 5 lines long; flowers blue, 7 lines 

 long; perianth-segments elliptic-ovate, obtuse, 4 lines long; stamens with 

 anthers 6; filaments opposite the inner perianth-segments with a broad mem- 

 branous wing extended beyond the anthers as two lanceolate appendages; 

 stamens opposite outer perianth-segments with filaments dilated toward the 

 base only, their anthers less than 14 the size of those of the other set; append- 

 ages convergent or connivent, forming a corona and more or less concealing 

 the anthers. — (Hookera capitata Ktze.) 



Very common on hillsides in the Bay region and southward to Southern 

 California. Feb. -May. 



8. B. ixioides (Ait. f.) Wats. Golden Brodiaea. Scape y 2 to 1% ft. 

 high, usually scabrous; leaves 2, 14 in. long or less; umbels 16 to 26-flowered; 

 pedicels 1V4 in. long or less; flowers about 10 lines long, salmon-yellow, with 

 a conspicuous black-purple vein on the outside running from the apex to the 

 base of each segment; stamens alternately long and short, the filaments dilated 

 and bifurcate at the winged summit, the oblong anthers on a cusp in the 

 notch. — (Hookera ixioides Ktze.) 



Common in the foothills of the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada. May. 

 Var. lugexs Jepson. Broad appendages of the filaments rounded at apex, 

 not forked; entire tube exteriorly dark brown, approaching black. — Vaca Mts. 



9. B. laxa (Benth.) Wats. Grass Nut. Scape 1 to 2 ft. high, rigid 

 and stoutish, from a usually deep-seated edible conn; umbel 10 to 25 -flowered ; 

 pedicels 1 in. long, more or less; perianth violet-purple, rarely white, IK to 

 1% in. long, funnelform, clavate at base, its segments shorter than the tube; 

 stamens 6, all anther-bearing; filaments inserted high on the perianth-tube, 

 2 lines long; anthers ovate-lanceolate with a 2-lobed base, 1% lines long; ovary 

 on a slender stipe y.> to % in. long. — (Hookera laxa Ktze.) 



