LILY FAMILY. Liliaceae. 

There are many kinds of Fritillaria, natives of the north 
temperate zone. In the East there are only cultivated ones, 
such as the familiar Crown Imperial, but we havea number 
growing wild in the West. They have bulbs with round, 
thick scales, developing into bulblets and sometimes resem- 
bling grains of rice. The flowers are bell-shaped, and nod- 
ding, with separate and nearly equal divisions, each with a 
nectar-spot atits base. They resemble Lilies, but the style 
is three-cleft, the honey-gland is a shallow pit and the flow- 
ers are smaller. The capsule is roundish and six-angled, 
containing numerous flat seeds. It is conspicuous and 
perhaps suggested the Latin name, meaning “‘ dice-box.”’ 
This plantisbeautifuland decorative, and 
Bronze Bells : : : : 
Brown Fritillary Yt there issomething weird aboutit. The 
Fritillaria flowers, aninch ormore across, grow four or 
atropur purea five in a cluster, on a smooth stalk about a 
Brown foot tall, the long, narrow leaves scattered 
Spring, summer ‘ P 
West orinwhorls. The bells, nodding on slen- 
der flower-stalks, are very unusual in color- 
ing. They are greenish-yellow, streaked and spotted with 
maroon, and the ‘ong curling tips of the three-pronged pistil 
project like the forked tongue of an adder, so that somehow 
we feel that, ina previous existence, beautiful as it is now, it 
may have beena toad or some reptile. When we found this 
flower growing in the Grand Canyon, halfway down Bright 
Angel trail, it seemed entirely suitable to the mysterious 
spirit of the place. The general effect is bronze-color and 
the attractive name of Bronze Bells, or Mission Bells, is 
very appropriate. It hasa small bulb of numerous, round- 
ish scales. The pistils are often rudimentary. 
Yellow Fritillary A pretty little flower, a favorite with 
Fritillaria padica Children, growing on grassy plains, with a 
Yellow smooth stem about six inches tall, and 
age ee ae smooth, somewhat thickish, alternate or 
ee eee" whorled leaves. The nodding flowers, 
about an inch long, are usually single, but sometimes as 
many as six on a stalk, various shades of yellow and 
orange, tinged with crimson and fading to dull-red. The 
smooth bulb is pure white, and made up of a number of 
rounded, thickish scales not resembling grains of rice, 
so the name Rice Root is not appropriate and the local 
Utah names, Crocus, Snowdrop, and Buttercup are absurd. 
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