LILY FAMILY. 105 



bases; anthers versatile Style long-filiform, slightly 3-cleft at apex. Capsule 

 broadly turbinate, 3-lobed, loculicidal, with 1 or 2 seeds in each eell. (Greek 

 chloros, green, and gala, milk or juice.) 



Perianth-segments rotate-spreading; pedicels 3 lines long or more; bulb with a thick coat 

 of coarse fibers 1. C. pomeridianum. 



Perianth-segments somewhat spreading from above the base; pedicels 1 line long or less; 

 bulb with a membranous coat 2. C. angustifolium. 



1. C. pomeridianum Kunth. Soap Plant. Amole. Plants 2 to 5 ft. high; 

 bulbs 4 in. long and 2 in. thick with a very dense coat of coarse brown fibers; 

 radical leaves numerous, % to 2 1 / 4 ft. long, X( 2 to l 1 /* in. broad, carinate and 

 with strongly undulate margin; cauline leaves few, short and long-attenuate; 

 pedicels slender, about 3 lines long; perianth-segments linear, 8 to 10 lines long, 

 white, purple-veined, spreading widely; capsule 3 lines long, the valves pinnately 

 nerved. 



Dry open low hills and plains throughout California. July- Aug. The flowers 

 open only in the afternoon, whence the specific name. Bulbs employed by the 

 Indians and Spanish-Californians for washing garments and used as food 

 by the Pomos, as doubtless other tribes, who cooked them in great pits in 

 the ground with California Grape leaves intermixed. 



2. C. angustifolium Kell. Bulb with a membranous coat; leaves 4 to 7 in. 

 long. 2 or 3 lines broad, becoming revolute; plant 14 to 22 in. high, the 

 panicle with few ascending branches; flowers white with yellowish-green lines, 



5 lines long; pedicels 1 line long or less, equaling the bracts or a trifle shorter; 

 perianth funnelform-campanulate, its segments narrowly oblong; ovary on a 

 short stipe. 



Lower San Joaquin and northward. 



12. ZYGADENUS Michx. Zygadene. 



Stem simple, scape-like, in ours from a tunicated bulb. Herbage glabrous 

 and somewhat glaucous. Leaves linear, mostly radical. Flowers erect, green- 

 ish-white, rather large, in a raceme or panicle. Perianth nearly rotate, wither- 

 ing-persistent ; segment ovate to oblong-lanceolate, with a green glandular 

 spot at the narrow but scarcely clawed base. Stamens 6, free from the seg- 

 ments and about equaling them. Styles distinct, persistent. Capsule deeply 

 3-lobed. (Greek zugon, a yoke, and aden, a gland.) 



Stamens l / 2 as long as the perianth; only inner segments contracted to a broad claw.... 



1. Z. fremontii. 



Stamens equaling the perianth; segments all contracted to a short claw 



2. Z. venenosus. 



1. Z. fremontii Torr. Star Zygadexe. Plants 1*4 to 2*4 ft. high; bulb 

 globose or broadly oblong, y.> to 1^4 in. long, with dark coats; radical leaves 

 8 to 20 in. long, 5 to 9 lines broad, usually somewhat falcate-curving, the 

 cauline few and shorter; raceme simple or paniculate; perianth-segments 

 3 to 7 lines long, the outer not clawed, the inner contracted to a broad claw; 

 gland greenish yellow, toothed on its upper margin; stamens about half as 

 long as the segments; ovules 10 to 20 or more in each cell; capsule oblong, 



6 to 10 lines long. 



Coast Range hillsides among bushes, common and variable. Apr. -.June. 

 Indians regard the bulbs as poisonous. Also called Black Grass Nut. Var. 

 minor H. & A.. 4 or 5 in. high, with few flowers. — An early form oear the 



