April Flowers in Northern California. 189 



make up the unbroken growth, from six to fifteen feet high, which, 

 in an almost impenetrable thicket, clothes many of the mountain 

 sides of the coast range, and gives them a smooth, Heath-like 

 appearance. The local name for this low growth is chemisal when 

 the shrub Adenostoma fasciculatum predominates; chapparal, if the 

 growth is largely mixed. In the aggregate vast areas are so 

 covered. One continuous belt is sixty miles long by eight or ten 

 wide, with very small breaks in timber or grazing land. Ceanothus 

 divaricatus is one of the commonest elements of chapparal, and is 

 now in bloom. In the open Redwood C. thyrsiflorus, a fine shrub, 

 ■often fifteen feet high, with flowers much like a lilac, and fully as 

 beautiful, covers large areas in an almost impenetrable thicket. 



In my garden Ervthronium grandiflorum is beginning to fade. 

 It gave fine satisfaction this season, planted in chip mold, and 

 rather shallow. E. giganteum, from Oregon, bloomed for the first 

 time this year. The bulbs were strong and produced large blossoms, 

 four to six to each, and several three inches across. Close observa- 

 tion shows some difference between this and E. grandiflorum, but 

 the distinction is not well enough defined to be satisfactory, Th<? 

 yellow of the flowers of E. giganteum has a slight greenish shad,e, 

 while those of E. grandiflorum shade from light straw at tips to 1 

 rich yellow near the centre, and occasionally with markings from 

 light brown to very dark. E. Smithii lacks the elegance of form of 

 the two former, and is one-flowered. Its color, at first, is white, 

 with a pink tinge, and becomes pink-purple. E. Howellii has a 

 straw-colored flower with a peculiar pinkish orange centre. With 

 me it was quite small, but the bulbs may not have been strong. 



Brodirea multiflora and B. congesta blossomed together, and 

 very beautiful they were. They were planted in shallow boxes, the 

 top soil mold and clay with a light dressing of sand. The first 

 Calochortus to flower was the dainty little C. cceruleus. It was. 

 closely followed by C. lilacinus. The first is doing well in a com- 

 mon clay loam. Fritillaria lanceolata seems to runs to many forms, 

 which, to the gardener, would be good varieties. The prettiest I 

 had this year was a light yellow one. They were in shallow boxes 

 about three inches deep, in clay loam, and shaded in the afternoon. 

 Considering the quality of the bulb the flowers were as good as I 

 have seen in the very best natural wild growth. There is a variety 

 of F. recurva which is unusually fine. Some racemes were sent to 

 me with five to nine blossoms, and I Ijave heard of one with 

 eighteen . Carl Purdy. 



