REVISION OF THE GENUS CALOCHORTUS. 



27 



light yellow flowers which grow to over 5 inches in 

 diameter. Var. Ventura has a lower stem with very 

 rich golden flowers. It is much easier to grow, 

 and is a fairly good garden plant, and is the one 

 figured in the first number of Flora. 



C. concolor. — A straight stemmed, large-flowered, 

 clear yellow species. If more than one the flowers 

 are in umbels. The bulb is large and reddish, 

 and all parts of the stems and leaves are covered 

 with a bluish bloom. The petals are a rich yellow 

 tending to orange, and the lower third is densely 

 covered with long erect hairs. This species was 

 first named C. Iuteus, var. concolor, by Mr. Baker, 

 but it has nothing in common in habit or style with 

 C. Iuteus. It grows in the arid regions of Southern 

 California. A splendid plate of it was published in 

 The Garden. 



C. Kennedy i. — As it grows in its desert home 

 the stem of this is very short (r to 4 inches), 

 the base leaves long, slender, and channelled and 

 bluish, as is the entire plant ; the petals a dazzling 

 vermilion and destitute of hairs, except for a few 

 about their base ; the gland is small, round, and 

 densely matted with hairs. It grows in dry gravelly 

 or clayey tablelands in the Mohave desert. In dry 

 seasons there is not enough moisture to allow it to 

 flower at all, but when the desert gets a fair rain- 

 fall they are very beautiful. The species extends 

 through Southern Nevada and Arizona, where the 

 flowers are from orange to creamy yellow. The 

 Garden, February 2, 1893, contained a fine plate of 

 the typical form. 



C. aureus. — This resembles C. Kennedy}, flowers 

 bright yellow. It is from the arid Great Basin re- 

 gion. One collector reported it as growing in marl, 

 and some specimens are labelled as coming from 

 sand cliffs in Southern Utah. I distributed a few 

 bulbs some years ago, but I doubt if it has ever 

 been successfully grown. 



C. macrocarpus, the Green-Banded Mariposa. — 

 A unique and very striking species, which is very 

 widely distributed in the region east of the Cascade 

 Mountains in Oregon, Washington, and British Co- 

 lumbia. It has a large bulb, a very stiff erect stem 

 and large flowers, the petals of which are narrow, 

 ending in a long point, and of a shiny lilac purple, 

 with green bands down the back. There are a few 

 hairs on the lower part of the petals, and a densely 

 hairy gland. Altogether it is beautiful and unique. 

 It grows on the dry tablelands of that semi-arid 

 region among the sage brush and bunch grasses. 

 There is a pure white form of it. 



C. Gunnisoni. — Like the Oregon Mariposas, this 

 has a single radical leaf which, is shorter and less 

 prominent than in the last group. The stems are 

 a foot or so high with a single bulblet at their 

 base. At the apex is an umbel of from one to four 



creamy white flowers. Usually there is a band of 

 dark blue just above the gland, which is narrow 

 and nearly the width of the petal, and densely 

 covered with short greenish hairs. It is found in 

 the southern Rocky Mountains, and is one of the 

 most beautiful of all Mariposas. I am informed by 

 a gentleman living in Central Pennsylvania that 

 it can readily be naturalized in that latitude, and 

 that his only trouble arose from the fondness of the 

 rabbits for its leaves. 



Group IV., Butterfly Tulips. — In this group 

 of closely-related species the bulbs are small, the 

 stems slender and wiry, the base leaves very long, 

 slender, and deeply channelled ; at the base of the 

 stem there are small bulblets ; the petals are usually 

 large (except the type of C. Iuteus), richly coloured 

 and with eye-like spots, and beautifully marked with 

 hairs and pencillings. The gland is not large and 

 from round to oblong mvenustusto crescent shape in 

 Iuteus. There are a few hairs about the gland. All 

 but C. Iuteus type and C.Vesta are considered by bulb 

 dealers as varieties of C.venustus. It is questionable if 

 any other class of plants in the world surpasses these 

 Mariposa Tulips in the variety and beauty of colour 

 and markings, and they are among the easiest Calo- 

 chorti to grow. The variations are innumerable, 

 and the local variations so blend the varieties that 

 all could not possibly be enumerated. I give all that 

 have received horticultural names. 



C. Iuteus. — A dwarfish species with small yellow 

 flowers, destitute of an eye, but prettily pencilled 

 about the gland. The gland is lunate in form. It 

 grows in cold clay soils in a narrow belt of country 

 at a distance of from three to fifteen miles from the 

 ocean from Monterey to Mendocino counties, Cali- 

 fornia. In other localities there are tall slender varie- 

 ties of this, none of which are equal to the type 

 in beauty. Var. citrinus (C. venustus, var. citrinus). 

 — This lovely species has a deep yellow or lemon 

 coloured flower with a dark maroon spot in the 

 centre of each petal with other pretty pencillings. All 

 those which have reached flower growers come from 

 a region a few miles wide and perhaps thirty miles 

 long in Sonoma County, Northern California. The 

 variety is widely distributed in California with many 

 variations, most of which are pale and not clearly 

 marked. Var. oculatus (C. venustus, var. oculatus). — 

 Taller and with flowers larger and more numerous 

 than the last. The petals range in colour from white 

 to cream and buff" and to purple. In the centre of 

 each is an eye-like spot of brown surrounded with 

 yellow. About the gland they are beautifully pen- 

 cilled. The gland is lunate. This lovely species is 

 scattered all over the unforested regions of North- 

 ern California, where it grows on clayey uplands and 

 southerly slopes. It prefers a shallow light clay soil 

 where moisture is plentiful in the winter season. 



