LILY FAMILY. Liliaceae. 
There are three kinds of Xerophyllum. 
This is a magnificent plant, from two 
Pe rao to six feet high, with a very stout, leafy 
Bear Grass 
Recophvilae stem, springing from a very large tuft of 
ténax wiry, grass-like leaves, which spread out 
White gracefully like a fountain. They are 
bes from one to two and a half feet long, dark- 
green on the upper side and pale-gray on 
the under, with rough edges. The imposing flower clus- 
ter ‘is borne at the top of the stalk and is about a foot 
long, broad at the base and tapering to a blunt point, 
and composed of hundreds of fragrant, cream-white 
flowers, each about half an inch across, with slender, 
white pedicels, and so closely crowded together that the 
effect is very solid, yet made feathery by the long stamens. 
It is a fine sight to come across a company of these noble 
plants in a mountain meadow, rearing their great shafts of 
bloom far above their neighbors. They are very handsome 
around Mt. Rainier. They are said to blossom only once 
in five or seven years and then to die. The leaves are 
used by Indians in making their finest baskets. Unfortu- 
nately the size of this book does not admit of an illustration. 
There are two kinds of Maianthemum, an eastern one 
and the following, which also grows in Europe and Asia. 
This is a very attractive, woodland 
Wild Lily-of- plant, from four to fourteen inches tall, 
the-valley f : 
Maiénthemum With handsome, glossy, rich green leaves, 
bifolium and a rather stout stem, bearing a pretty 
White cluster, two or three inches long, of many, 
Spring, summer 
ll -white flowers, with four divi- 
Wash., Oreg., Cal. pny eee oe ae 
sions. They have four stamens, with 
thread-like filaments and small, yellowish anthers, the 
stigma has two lobes and the berry is red. This grows 
in rich soil in the mountains and is much handsomer than 
its eastern relation and strongly sweet-scented. The 
Latin name means “blooming in May.” 
