REVISION OF THE GENUS CALOCHORTUS, 



2 5 



Later it was lost sight of, and its very name appro- 

 priated by C. amabitis. It has been reintroduced 

 during the last few years as C.pulchellus (Douglas). 

 From Mount Diablo, California. This most lovely 

 species can best be described as a light yellow form 

 of C. a/bus, " The Pearl." The flowers are the largest 

 of any of the globe tulips, and finely globular. The 

 petals are exquisitely fringed with short stiff hairs. 



C. amabilis. — Was until this year known as C. 

 pulchellus. It differs in having much smaller flowers, 

 of quite another shape and a much deeper yellow. 

 The petals are very strongly arched, and the flower 

 is very suggestive of the paper pin-wheels with 

 which children play. The very deep gland projects 

 like a knob on the back of the petal. Usually 

 a plant 6 or 7 inches high, I often see it a foot or 

 more high, with as many as sixteen flowers. Give 

 it a sheltered position on a rock garden with a 

 soil very rich in leaf mould, and it will make a 

 grand plant. The largest specimen that I ever saw 

 was growing in the decayed mould of a rotten tree. 

 It is a native of the coast ranges north of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay for 200 miles, a region of very heavy rain- 

 falls. 



Group II., Small StarTulips.— This group has 

 the general character of the preceding, but differs in 

 being very slender and flexuous, with the cup-shaped 

 flowers erect or nearly so, and the seed-pod pen- 

 dulous. They very seldom bear offsets on the stem, 

 and are natives of shady woods. 



C. Maweanus. — The type is a very slender 

 plant with whitish flowers densely covered with 

 silky bluish hairs, and nothing could be more dainty. 

 The type grows in the coast ranges of California 

 north of San Francisco bay in the same region as 

 C. amabilis, but choosing the colder, shadier spots 

 in the higher mountains. Var. major. — In the Sierra 

 Nevada foothills, in north-eastern California, this 

 strong form is found. It is fully twice as large and 

 in every way sturdier, and likes more sun. The var. 

 roseus occurs in Oregon, in a belt of country which 

 has a very heavy rainfall, with much summer and 

 autumn rain — indeed, a climate very much like that 

 of England. C. Maweanus is represented by two 

 forms also. The minor form has a bulb coated with 

 a deep brown skin, and the flowers are strongly 

 tinged rose. It is a fine form. The other, more 

 local in distribution, is like it, but almost rivals 

 C. Purdyi in robustness. 



C. cceruleus. — The true ccerukus is the daintiest 

 of the Star Tulips. It resembles C. Maweanus but 

 has much longer silky hairs, and the pod is shorter 

 and broader. The higher regions of the Northern 

 Sierra Nevada are its home, where it grows in the 

 pine forests. 



C. Benthami. — This species is a native of the 

 foothill belt of the central Sierra Nevada moun- 



tains, and can be summed up as a yellow C. Mawe- 

 anus. It endures more heat and is hardier than the 

 others. 



C. elegans. — Known in two forms. The type 

 grows in the far North-West, in Idaho, in the pine 

 woods. It is a very slender species, the white flowers 

 covered with short silky hairs. Var. nanus. — This 

 is quite a different plant, with light yellow flowers 

 covered with long silky hairs. It comes from the 

 high peaks of the Cascades in Oregon, and is one 

 of the prettiest of the StarTulips. It has been dis- 

 tributed as C. apiculatus. 



C.Lobbi. — Another of the dainty elegans group. 

 The flowers are white, tinged green, and densely 

 covered with silky hairs. The very deep gland 

 projects without in a knob. A pretty and distinct 

 species from Mount Jefferson, a high peak of the 

 Oregon Cascades. C. nudus. — This can be summed 

 up as a perfectly hairless species, otherwise like the 

 smallest forms of C. elegans. In the high Sierras 

 of California on densely shaded slopes. C. umbel- 

 latus is also known as C. collinus. It is a full- 

 flowered stronger-growing species, which can at all 

 times be easily identified by its broad white petals, 

 which have only a few hairs above the gland, and 

 by the absence of offsets on the stem. It is a good 

 species, which grows only on the low hills about 

 San Francisco Bay, and often in open grassy spots. 

 I have always found it in heavy clays, and any Calo- 

 chortus which grows naturally in heavy clays is 

 more apt to prove easy to cultivate. 



C. uniflorus. — Better known as C. lilacinus. It 

 can always be recognised by the many offsets which 

 form on its stem below the surface of the ground. 

 The flowers are large, with lilac to purplish petals, 

 which have only a few hairs above the gland C. lila- 

 cinus grows only in meadows which are very wet 

 during the rainy season and dry up after flowering 

 time. It extends from Monterey Bay to Central 

 Oregon, and is probably the hardiest and most 

 vigorous of all Calochortus. 



C. Shastensis. — A most dainty little species, 

 which is found in wet meadows at about 5,000 feet 

 on Mount Shasta, California. It is very slender 

 with whitish flowers, which are entirely destitute of 

 hairs. The seed-pod, unlike that of any other Star 

 Tulip, is erect when ripe. 



Group III., Giant Star Tulips. — Sturdy erect 

 plants, which grow in open fields and meadows 

 throughout Western Oregon (except apiculatus). As 

 I have said, Western Oregon is a region where the 

 winters are quite cold and the rainfall heavy, both 

 in summer and winter. They are found in all soils, 

 and are at their best in the grain-fields. 



C. Tolmiei. — From 9 to 18 inches high, stout, 

 white or blue flowered, the petals densely covered 

 with bluish hairs. C. Purdyi only differs in the 



