26 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



gland, and the flowers being creamy white or tinged 

 purple, with silky white hairs on the upper half 

 and similar purplish ones on the lower half. The 

 only sure distinction between this and the former is 

 that C. Tolmiei lacks a scale above the gland that C. 

 Purdyi possesses. There is a difference in colour, 

 but the scale is the final test. C. Tolmiei varies much 

 in colour. The light-coloured forms are hardly to 

 be distinguished from C. Purdyi, except by the scale 

 test, but the darker ones give a shade well worth 

 growing the plant for. 



C. apiculatus. — In this fine species the petals 

 are straw-coloured, with only scattering hairs above 

 the gland. It is a native of Northern Idaho, and 

 has never been in cultivation. 



Section II. 



Mariposa Tulips. — In all of the Mariposa section 

 of Calochortus the flowers and sced-pods are stiffly 

 erect. The Oregon Mariposas connect the giant 

 Star Tulips very closely with the true Mariposas. 



Group L, Oregon Mariposas. — These have a 

 long shining base leaf like the preceding species, and 

 a very similar capsule, which is always stiffly erect. 



C. nitidus. — After the splendid plate in Flora, 

 description of the flower of this species would seem 

 superfluous. The stems are stout, with an offset 

 at the base, the flowers in umbels. There are varia- 

 tions in colour, from lilac to white ; but the vivid 

 purple blotch in the centre of each petal is a con- 

 stant feature. It is found in the region east of the 

 Oregon Cascades, and as far north-east as the Yel- 

 lowstone Park in Montana. It always grows in 

 places where there is much moisture throughout the 

 early summer, in damp spots in the mountains, or 

 moist meadows. The climate of this region is quite 

 cold, but dry in summer. Doubtless the thermo- 

 meter reaches 20 to 40 degrees below zero at many 

 points where C. nitidus thrives. I am justified in 

 saying that my experience has proved it to be what 

 its habits would indicate, one of the easiest of Calo- 

 chorti to cultivate successfully. 



C. longibarbatus. — In this species we have a 

 smaller flower of the same general type as C. nitidus. 

 The petals are lavender, with dark purple circular 

 band above the gland, and some long silky hairs 

 around it. It has the same habits as C. nitidus and 

 group. It is found in the eastern portion of the 

 state of Washington, in "moist fields and meadows. 

 C. pavonaceus is so near the last as to be hardly 

 worth separating 



C. Greenei. — Has a stout branching stem with 

 broad petals, lilac in colour, somewhat barred below 

 with yellow, and the lower part densely covered 

 with long yellow hairs. It has never been intro- 

 duced into cultivation, and is little known north of 

 Mount Shasta in California. 



C. Howelli. — The erect stem is a foot or more 

 in height, and many-flowered, the petals white, 

 covered with short, crisp hairs, those about the 

 gland greenish. This unique and charming species 

 is found only in a few spots in south-western Ore- 

 gon. It grows only in a deep sticky clay, and 

 the bulbs are as much as a foot deep in the ground. 

 It is probable that it will prove quite amenable to 

 culture. 



Group II. — C. Weedi is a species with many 

 forms which merge almost imperceptibly into each 

 other. It can be recognised at all times by the 

 single large radical leaf, which is almost exactly like 

 that of C. a/bus, and is from 1 foot to 2 feet long 

 and half an inch or more wide, by the heavy coating 

 of coarse stringy fibre on the bulb, and by the long 

 silky hairs on the petals, each of which is seated in 

 a brown dot. The stems are tall and branching, 

 the flowers large, and the gland small and nearly 

 round. 



C. Weedi and its forms are plants of Southern 

 California. In the rather arid region behind the 

 coast line they are found growing in the sand and 

 grit of the dry mesas as the tablelands are called. 

 Oftener they grow in the shelter of the stunted 

 bushes which can sustain life in such soils. 



The type, known as C. Weedi, has an orange- 

 coloured flower, and the hairs are yellow. Often 

 the petals are almost square at the point. C. Plum- 

 mera, also known as var. purpurascens, has a full, 

 well-rounded petal, lilac or purple in colour, with 

 the hairs of the same colour. C. Weedi, var. vestus, 

 has the petals cut about half-way off, and with 

 brownish hairs on a reddish-brown ground. 



C. obispoensis is an extreme form, in which the 

 petals are reduced to mere rudiments, while all 

 the hairs, which are scattered over the petals of the 

 full-petalled varieties, seem so dense upon the small 

 remaining surface. It is a very fantastic form. 



These forms are distributed from south to north 

 in the order that I have given them, and there 

 are many intermediate forms besides. The fullest 

 petalled forms are in the arid regions farthest to 

 the south-east, the most attenuated petalled forms 

 to the farthest northern point of their habitat. 



Group III., C. clavatus and Golden Bowl 

 Mariposas. — In this the petals are yellow through- 

 out, the lower half covered with hairs, each of which 

 is tipped with a little translucent knob. The stems 

 are stout and zigzagged, the leaves are long linear 

 and deeply channelled, and of a bluish caste. They 

 grow only on dry rocky points in peculiar volcanic 

 formations and at widely separated spots for some 

 400 miles in the hottest portions of California. 

 There are several variations, two of which have 

 been given horticultural names. Var. El Dorado has 

 immense bulbs, a very tall, stout stem, and great 



