Star Tulips. 75 



should the office be continued — and it now appears that Professor 

 H. E. Sommers, of Knoxville, Tenn., will succeed him — his suc- 

 cessor will find a good groundwork upon which to erect a sub- 

 stantial superstructure. F. W. Goding. 



STAR TULIPS. 



.From the Pacific Rural Press. XXXIX. n.) 



Though they belong to the same genus, Calochortus, the 

 Mariposa or Butterfly Tulips, and the Star Tulips are distinct 

 enough in general appearance to be thought quite separate. While 

 the Mariposa Tulips are marked by a stiff, erect stem, and erect 

 cups of flowers, brilliantly colored, the Star Tulips have a droop- 

 ing, flexuous habit, and flowers more delicate in form and color 

 than brilliant. In these attributes, delicacy of flower and grace of 

 form, the Star Tulips are excelled by no other flower in cultiva- 

 tion. The general appearance is similar to the well-known snow- 

 drop. They have only one leaf, a glossy green, lance-shaped 

 leaf, often a foot long, proceeding from the bulb. The flowering 

 stem is slender and drooping, branched in most species into 

 many flower pedicels, with no leaves, and the bracts often colored 

 like the flowers. The strongest growing species are as much as 

 a foot high, in good specimens, while some of the small species 

 are at perfection at three inches. Most of the species find their 

 most congenial home in Woodland. 



In describing the species they can best be grouped. Calo- 

 chortus albus and C.pulchellus are strong growing species, bear- 

 ing numerous blossoms. The petals curve together and close, 

 forming a flattened globe, which hangs pendalous. On the ex- 

 posed edges of the petals is a fringe of silky hairs. The blossom 

 of C. albus is of a pearly white. The inside is filled with silky 

 white hair. It has sometimes been called the ' Lantern of the fair- 

 ies.' A well-grown plant of this species will bear from ten to 

 twenty or thirty flowers, one to two inches in diameter. 



Calochortus pulchellus differs from the preceding in its blos- 

 soms being a golden yellow and hardly so large. Both species 

 grow in dry, loose soils in open woods and are easily cultivated. 



In another group can be placed C. Benthamii, C. maweannus, 

 C elegans and C. coeruleus. In all of these the average speci- 

 men is quite low and the flowers wonderfully delicate. A well- 

 grown specimen is three to five inches high, but the single root 

 leal is often much longer. The slender flower stem bears a few 

 pendulous, open, bell-shaped flowers, filled with long silky hairs. 

 All are plants of the cool woodlands. C. Benthamii is golden 

 yellow, the others white to blue, and filled with hairs of the same 

 color. 



In my last group of Star Tulips I would place a few species of 

 plants growing in wet places, having the same long, glossy root 

 leaf, but a stouter, more erect stem, and open, cup-like flowers in 



